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Old 04-03-2023, 07:52 PM   #757
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: 'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

Mead:

The stereotype of beer being the only manly drink in the Sword Worlds is well known. However there is a popular subculture of Mead. It is inevitable as after all it IS good enough for such a luminary as Odin. Though there are popular imports best reputed native meads are from Durendil where much effort is put into the cultivation of Terran bees. The esoterica of the profession has been the subject of many a periodical on that world.

Throughout the Sword Worlds whatever their political affiliation it is possible to find drinking establishments that specialize in mead as well as those who maintain stocks as an addition to a predominately beery stock.

Inns and Pubs:

In the Sword Worlds local establishments are important in social life. They can be political centers in more democratic polities, and serve other purposes in those that are less so. Common themes are drawn from Germanic tradition.

One custom exists which while not unique to the Sword Worlds is genuinely fascinating. Engaging in the hospitality trade is considered an honorable occupation. There is a certain snobbery about this. Palatial hotels are appropriate for the second sons of Hertugs and prominent Jarls. Pubs are run by local gentry. No member of the ruling class will let himself be caught maintaining a starport dive. Some will PATRONIZE a spacer's boarding house as opposed to managing it and write it of as philanthropy.

Managers of such establishments tend to have a faux-feudal relationship with their staff. This attitude between employers and employees is not rare in many occupations in the Sword Worlds but it is especially the case with hospitality establishment. Such skilled workers as mixologists, storytellers, and singers can pledge a feudal oath even to common born managers, as do bouncers who account themselves as and are treated as, a type of man at arms.
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Last edited by jason taylor; 10-03-2023 at 10:16 AM.
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