Cultures of Radenor [Lore]

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Norunn Cultures


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Norad


Overview
To begin with, it is important to note that there are cultural commonalities in all of the Norunn cultures; things that tie them together as a cultural 'group' rather than a nation purely comprised of divergent ethnic groups. These commonalities can be minor or far-reaching, but they should become clear in the text of each article describing the three main 'groups' of Norunn people.

Among them, Norad is the predominant group, representing a large minority of Radenor's population. The Norad are effectively the ethnic group most represented in the Kyngdoms of Jorikford and Vestria, and represent the culture of the valley pre-Unbroken occupation and the Sundering. They are most parallel to what the people of Radenor were like during its time of unity, maintaining many of their old cultural rituals and traditions. For this reason, they are often called 'Middle-Norunn', with Kungoðr frequently called 'Old-Norunn' and Sundrians called 'New-Norunn'.

Norad are a fairly simplistic, community-driven and superstitious people. They are often described as friendly and welcoming, but are a highly uneducated people, often clinging to their old ways. Like all Norunn, they are prolific story-tellers, known to share stories of the country itself: they speak of Theowyth and his descendants, of their history - its tellings warped by time - and of the ancient legacy of their people. They often speak of the fortitude of their community, their Earldom, and then their Kyngdom by extension, and tend to be very loyal and devoted to their Kyng and Earl.

Superstition, however, does act to hamper much of their good nature. The Norad are highly intolerant to specific religious groups, far moreso than their more 'open' Kungoðr peers, or their more 'educated, cosmpolitan' Sundrian neighbors. Due to the frequency of Ridhain's assaults on Vestria, Sheorlund and Jorikford, the Norad tend to despise the Elven Gods, referring to them as 'demons' and 'monsters' worthy only of death. They also loathe the Omen, considering it to be an incredibly pervasive heresy, a blight on Venadr and His name. Open worshipers of the Omen are often stoned or exiled as mind-addled beasts, hated and feared for the poison they whisper.

This bigotry extends a few other ways: while they mostly tolerate the Hyr'norai as great allies of the past, and see the Rien as fellow travelers through history, as well as being friendly towards Tyrclaidians... the Norad are heavily intolerant towards the Daravain, whether Raillen or Gentevarese. They view them as unwelcome visitors, and envoys from Couronne are often met with a mass of rocks and spoiled vegetation as they stride through the city streets. This same hatred extends towards many of the Ectun, who they view as implicit traitors, and even many of the more learned Sundrians for their toleration of Unbroken-bile upon their doorstep.

The Norad are a very religious people, and a people devoted to their culture and way of life. They are insular in this respect, and are greatly resistant to change, passively smiling or laughing away outside influence. While this makes them often appear very simple and mundane, they are undeniably kind to those who do not press their boundaries, and their own internal cohesion is a positive one; their towns and villages are safe, community-oriented, and peaceful, compared to many other civilizations.


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Norad Architecture


Clothing and Food
Norad Women often wear bonnets and long skirts or dresses which conceal the majority of their body, often in earthly colors such as green, beige or brown. Men are fairly likely to wear a tunic with a short 'skirt' separated by a belt, with long pants beneath, leading into simple shoes. Most often, women grow their hair long and tie them into buns or braids, while men tend to have short hair and well-maintained beards that work only to chisel their jaw-line, trimmed before they grow too extensive.

As mentioned in the main lore article, Norad people tend to eat primarily wheat-based products and some meats, as well as simple dairy and a limited selection of fruits and vegetables. Their diet is said to be incredibly mundane, often not salted or seasoned, and so their palate is simplistic and often based on efficiency; energy, fats, things to run on and survive with. Parts of Vestria are certainly more creative with its dishes than most of the Norad-dominated regions, with their creative seafood concoctions and the soy and rice that is grown in Bexshire.

One notable element to Norad food is the prevalence of venison and buffalo meat, with buffalo being a fairly uncommon meat elsewhere. The steaks made from buffalo tend to be some of the best tasting of Norad foods, and much of their fat is made into an oil mixed with a fruit-based sauce that they use to make high-quality steaks. Foods such as this are the staple of much of the nobility, and the military, given their lean fats and high protein.

Holidays
The third Venadas of every season (the 15th) is celebrated by the Norad, a holiday festivity called 'Cenbrael'. This is the most active holiday in any given Norad town or city, where a mass of people will stretch out from town square - refusing to work - and will engage in merriment and revelry. Azalea petals will float everywhere and get into everything, the wind blowing the thrown petals across the city until they stick on every surface. Anyone over the age of thirteen will typically drink heavily, the streets becoming filled with drunks who will sing, dance and fight until they fall unconscious. Despite Cenbrael being a religious holiday, it is essentially a celebration of life, family and friends, and is a time where most people simply go out to lose their inhibitions and enjoy themselves.
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Kungoðr


Overview
The Kungoðr (pron. Kun-goath-ur) represent the old lives of the Norunn people -- their original culture, from so long ago, almost untouched. They are the savages of the valley, educated only in wielding an axe or plying their mundane trades, rife with superstition as they speak tales of the Gods as if they dwelt upon the same hills as their own. Yet within the furs, wooden longhouses and simplicity of the Kungoðr, there is a great wisdom often aspired to by others.

They are known to be a brutal and harsh people, with sharp and unyielding tongues, yet they are - equally - some of the most tolerant and open of all, capable listeners and skilled wordsmiths. While formal education may not prosper throughout their lands, an informal preponderance towards rhetoric and sharing ideas fosters among them, and for this reason they are a naturally exploratory people. The Kungoðr are capable navigators on land and sea, and are known to be some of the world's greatest hunters, of man and other sort of bounty. They are naturally curious towards magic, and view mages with far less derision or suspicion than their southern peers, though they still bind them to service.

To the Kungoðr, the Path (Radenor's religion) is a very different thing. Rather than purely worshiping Venadr and treating the other Gods as his Valkyrs, the Kungoðr worship all of the Gods, and simply consider Venadr to be their Chief. All of the Gods are referred to as the 'High Ones', though a few of them -- namely Drunik (Draz'Rizel), Saenir (Saryn), Ulver (Ulluven), Valtorün (Valteran) and Jaxadraug (Jaxkael) -- are considered to be 'dead'. The death of the Gods is an interesting concept to the Kungoðr, who do not believe their death to be a permanent state. Rather, they view their death to be an intermission while their soul travels to the depths, to a dark unknown from which they will eventually congregate and collude, certain to bring about the downfall of humanity and the world in their rage.

The Kungoðr's primary pantheon consists of Venadr, Malök, Eva, Ysena, Adun, Kyrkolax and Jaxadraug (see Radenor's main Religion lore). The remaining Gods, including the dead ones (such as Jaxadraug) are still worshiped, and stories are still woven of them and their ongoings and fate. The dead Gods will have tales written of their passage to the frosted sister-world of Uthern (Atharen), formally known as Rigesogr.

In Kungoðr lore, the Gods are somewhat accurately portrayed as a complex, ambivalent group of scarcely unified beings, tied together by their own survival. Many of them are viewed as ambivalent, or even cruel; they are the source of rage, avarice, mistrust, betrayal and intolerance, and the petty fears that mortals succumb to. Rather than any sort of devil, the Gods themselves will be blamed for fits of rage or cruelty, or for rakish displays of humanity. Venadr is the worst of them, not a being of love or forgiveness, but of tyranny and a mindless need to assert his authority and influence. A man who must not be questioned, lest those in his wake be sundered and shorn by a mace and gleaming light.

The Kungoðr also worship a second 'tier' of Gods called the Minaðr. These Gods, like their primary pantheon, have their basis in truth: many of them are or are based on real Draedan who actually lived, the children or later descendants of the Gods. While Draedan are not simply worshiped for being Draedan, many of the greatest of them - real or not - will be chronicled in the Gurlod, the holy book of the Kungoðr's Path. They are treated like epic heroes, though in the past this has caused for those same Draedan to attempt to exploit their celebrity for power and wealth, causing for most of them to be cast in a sinister light.


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Kungoðr Architecture


Clothing and Food
Kungoðr are known to be well-groomed, despite being regarded by many as a more 'savage' or backwater culture. While men tend to have beards -- sometimes even full, heavy ones -- they maintain them well, their hair rarely having a wild or disheveled appearance. They tend to have longer hair than the southern Norad men, as well, often leading into braids on the sides or full knots or pony tails, but these styles too are well maintained. Another commonality for Kungoðr men is shaven hair, either in a sort of fade or wholly shaven but with hair left at the top. Women tend towards a simpler variety of styles: typical, long hair, or more often, braided tails or side braids that loom over their shoulders. These can vary from one thick braid to two, one on each side, or a long ponytail following them. Some women -- particularly those who fight in the army or raiding groups (called heilungr's) -- shave the side of their head, tending to have a display of intricate tattoos there instead, while their hair will be swept over the opposing shoulder.

Kungoðr clothing is unimaginative: pelts, leathers and furs for their warriors, and typically a mixture of furs, wool and fabrics like cloth or linen for their common clothing. Considering Northradica is at least moderately cooler than the southern regions of Radenor, the clothing of the Northradicans compensates for that. Unlike most men and women of the Norad and Sundrian culture sub-groups, Kungoðr tend to wear boots, often with fur trims, rather than small suede heels and other simpler shoes.

The Kungoðr are a very social people, and this shows in their meals: they are unlikely to ever have a proper meal without family or friends around, often sharing large wooden platters amongst one another. Considering most of their food is hunted or caught through the reel of a line or fishing hook at their town's local river, they tend to view the bounty of their catches as belonging to the town itself, and show this by sharing their meals freely with friends and even interested strangers. Kungoðr towns often have large, open halls covered by wooden rooftops held up by columns where food will be donated to local 'brewmaidens' only to be cooked and distributed throughout the gathered souls. These meals are most commonly that of fish, eel, elk, bison, cow, goat or some other meat, along with a small amount of bread, some fruit and a thick white yogurt known as skyr.

Holidays
Kungoðr have many holidays unique to them. In fact, among all of the culture groups of Radenor, they are known to be the most festive.

Kráka, 58th of Glade:

Hindalr, 30th of Ash:

Sinkömma, 83rd of Frost:

Lankúg, 89th of Frost:
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Sundrian


Overview
WIP.


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Sundrian Architecture


Clothing and Food
WIP.

Holidays
WIP.
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Other Cultures


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Ectun


Overview
The Ectun are most prominently found in Tilema and to a lesser extent Sheorlund, but there are Ectun throughout all of Radenor, and moreso in the Unbroken-influenced cities of Oxentide, Brenic, and Lanbridge. In total, there are over a million Ectun in Radenor, making them the largest non-Norunn ethnic group in the valley, by far. WIP.
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Shorax


Overview
The Shorax were once Norunn, but by the boots and blades of the Krish invaders, their culture, their language and their way of life was entirely demolished, leaving them as little more than wild savages, with no skill but to labor. WIP.
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Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:37 pm


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Skaldrúna


Overview
WIP.
word count: 60
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