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Old 10-21-2019, 06:38 PM   #131
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Default Re: Curious Local Customs

There is an old abandoned palace/temple/really cool place with labyrinthine halls. Initiates to something or other have to cross through finding a series of four Macguffins in the process. Anyone who wishes to can call for help at any time but doing so disqualifies them. No other communication with the outside world is allowed.
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Old 10-25-2019, 08:41 AM   #132
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When two people meet the most important thing is to establish status vis-a-vis one another. In the back woods they just have a fist fight. In civilized country there are all sorts of ways from reciting and comparing linage to comparing craft products etc. Onlookers judge the result by as they judge who has "played fair". After words the inferior must remain inferior until some event takes place that allows him to claim a power shift.
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Old 10-26-2019, 08:57 AM   #133
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Swordbearers:

A swordbearer is someone who has the right to bear a sword. This is not as simple as that. What it really means is to bear it in the presence of the monarch. It is of course tied down (unless the monarch orders that it not be which is considered a bonus compliment) and only the rulers guard are allowed modern ranged weapons. But the sword though highly polished and often with a stylized sheath is usually quite capable of combat. Great noblemen and dignitaries as well as ordinary citizens with some accomplishment or other are swordbearers.

Some prefer icons of the vocation in which they distinguish themselves. Such as a cauducus for doctors, etc. These are still called swordbearers and still have the right to wear a sword in the monarchs court though may only do so when it is bestowed.
An alternative (though not incompatible) tradition. Important People carry a locket describing their claim to Importance and a key. Each Claim is carried on a gold keychain. Thus Important People are known by the slang term Danglers.
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Old 11-22-2019, 12:59 AM   #134
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The hill people of the Khogor Marches trade frequently with Fortress Dwarves, trading their fine leather goods and foodstuffs for the treasures of the mountains. Lacking a common language, they feel awkward during the traditional Tolkan feasts that are held to celebrate a good transaction. The Tolkans serve a delicious dish called törppörkölt, which translates directly to "dwarf stew". A talented linguist will tell the Dwarven leader that eating it is not cannibalism. The men of the hills simply think of it as a fine stew cooked in the dwarven manner: nice chunks of meat stewed patiently over a slow fire for at least six hours.
In this campaign, a character can make good money working as a good interpreter.
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Old 06-02-2020, 11:20 AM   #135
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One I thought of was fictive years. When an office is nominally hereditary but the heir in strictly applied succession laws is unworthy then fictive years are added to the choice to make him the "eldest". If necessary there is a political adoption.

Honors can be given to "X and your heirs should they prove worthy". What that means is not, "Should they prove as cool a guy as daddy" for that gives him his own honors. It means, "Is it the consensus of the members of the (whichever corporate body is giving out said honors) that such and such won't embarrass daddy's ghost?"

The substitute for sumptuary laws is the right to make purchases at resturants and shops sponsored by given societies. It is a way to make achievement (or at least nepotism) mean something, without intruding on others property because no one is claiming to own more than their trademark (similar to the way a monarch, or his corporation solo, can own gold regalia without owning everything gold).
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Old 06-04-2020, 07:36 PM   #136
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One custom I've used on my homegrown gameworld - The Kargish Culture requires ALL transactions be witnessed by the clergy, and a fee of 1% is payed to the cleric, usually a minor cleric. This does a tithing trickle up.
Clergy exceed 1% of the population... plus, the locals are expected to tithe from the harvest or profits direct to the local parish.

Not having a transaction witnessed is both a crime and a sin. The both are punished - the church auctions off the items and the watch gets to split the cash...
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Old 08-12-2020, 07:39 AM   #137
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Being compared to a carrion eater as a compliment. The locals figured out that carrion tended to spread disease and thus carrion eaters limited spread through that vector, and thus being called a "vulture" means "making a honest if harsh living through doing the dirty jobs that need to be done". But for people coming from a place where carrion eaters have an undeserved poor reputation... It may throws them off a bit.
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Old 08-13-2020, 06:07 PM   #138
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Being compared to a carrion eater as a compliment. The locals figured out that carrion tended to spread disease and thus carrion eaters limited spread through that vector, and thus being called a "vulture" means "making a honest if harsh living through doing the dirty jobs that need to be done". But for people coming from a place where carrion eaters have an undeserved poor reputation... It may throws them off a bit.
Some tribes do revere the Condor. The "Desert Rats" of the Seventh Armored Division are really Jerboas though.
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Old 08-14-2020, 03:38 AM   #139
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Just learned that Malaysia has nine kings. It's a federation of nine monarchies, and there's a rotating schedule for each of the kings (eight whom are hereditary rulers and the ninth of which is elected), with changes of "supreme" king switching every five years.
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Old 08-14-2020, 10:46 AM   #140
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Just learned that Malaysia has nine kings. It's a federation of nine monarchies, and there's a rotating schedule for each of the kings (eight whom are hereditary rulers and the ninth of which is elected), with changes of "supreme" king switching every five years.
That's kind of cool.
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