Rhisl

Houmadi, Rhisl ambassador to Louisia, and a Misasmn

The Rhisl are a hardy, incredibly ancient mountaineering culture, herding goats and using their meat and milk as a primary nutrition source. Every part of a goat that has died is used, including bones, hooves, and horns. Visibly wearing goat products as clothing or accessories is a major mark of pride and experience in Rhisl culture, as proof that a person has raised at least one goat from birth to death and not wasted any of its holy body, allowing it to enrich them for generations to come and ascend to posterity.

The decentralized and compulsory-participatory means of governance does not necessitate a fixed location of government, which also naturally aligns with the lack of significant urban centers, and with the mountainous landscape.

## Naming Traditions

### Unisex names

As in the majority of cultures of Paan Atta, Rhisl personal names are not inherently gender specific. However, when spoken aloud, a different inflection is often given to a name based on what role the bearer fulfills.

### Family names

Like Marathans, the Rhisl generally lack family names, with the notable exception of those with proven foreign ancestry, who inherits a family name from another nation. This name is usually Msarban or Fashfan, the nearest neighbors to the largest Rhisl population centers.

## Culture

### Common Etiquette rules

It is politely required to ask someone how their livestock/their family's livestock are faring, generally right after enquiring about human factors.

Acting as if you know someone you do not is very rude and anticipated as a scam, sadly this is true even if it is well-intentioned to save oneself or the other person from danger.

Metal jewelry is reserved for formal or sacred occasions, and if worn at other times it is seen as vain and boastful.

### Art & Architecture

Traditionally, Rhisl architecture conforms to the shapes of the steep hills and mountainsides with steps, stairs, or occasionally thick stilts and pylons. To alter the landscape by digging into the hills and slopes to inset a home is seen as disrespectful to nature in an unspoken way.

Insulation of warmth is conserved by setting windows only where the sun's light will hit them and warm the room, but where the light will hit, the windows are large, transparent, and very thickly paned.

### Foods & Cuisine

While other cultures sometimes utilize goat cheese, generally as a secondary resource to cow dairy seeing as cows produce a larger quantity, the Rhisl have perfected small-batch goat cheeses of many different consistencies and diverse flavors. Goat cheese to other cultures is generally a rustic appetizer, served separately from the main meal. For the Rhisl, it is often a major if not the main component. Some common usages include: as a spread, mixed into sauces or broths, sprinkled over food, or pressed and topped with grain meal and herbs.

### Birth & Baptismal Rites

Human times of reproduction and birth are ideally synchronized with the rhythms of goats.

### Coming of Age Rites

Children generally do not wear shoes and have their feet washed by family members before they go to sleep. The toughening of the feet is significant and representative of the learning and exploration of childhood. The first pair of true shoes (as opposed to the thick wrappings used when it is necessary) is fitted and worn when a person's feet stop growing. This is a significant coming-of-age ritual, and the shoes are shown off to everyone the adolescent encounters. Around this time is when someone is expected to finalize their choice of gender/social role and begin to exemplify that role alone and more seriously train for it.

### Common Taboos

Killing or hurting a goat in any way is taboo, slightly less so if it is out of complete necessity, though ideally, one will choose death instead. If this is done without good reason, and intentionally, the perpetrator is put to death. The products of the goat both while alive and when dead are considered tainted and are not to be used by anyone if not out of desperation, and if used are awful luck. When the goat dies, it is to be buried in its entirety, and on top of the human perpetrator.

It is an act of cowardice and sacrilege punishable by death to intentionally manipulate the sacredness of goats by using them as a shield or similar so that someone may not attack or fight back without desecrating the sacred object. It is also sacrilege with the same punishment to force or coerce an innocent party into harming a goat.

### Common Myths and Legends

It is said that goats are the original attempt at creating humanity by the sun, however, they were too sweetly innocent and thus perfect, that they were easily tricked by the brambles to become incapable of speech by allowing their voice boxes to be penetrated with thorns. After this, the sun sighed and eclipsed. The sun created the current humanity that has flaws and is at times a trickster, and because of this distrustful, and thus not this susceptible to pain and anguish as goats are. Humanity was given the duty to care for and protect and adore goats, and the reward **and** duty of using the products of goats.

## Ideals

### Beauty Ideals

Rhisl beauty ideals vary noticeably based on one's role, but in common, visible bodily strength and athleticism are ideal, as are straight and tame hair.

### Gender Ideals

The Rhisl have four traditional gender roles: those who keep the livestock from harm or leaving, those who make and use the cloth, those who sing the invigorating holy goatsongs, and those who make the food. These four have significant differences in clothing, both based on different occupations having different practicality needs, and also based on making one's role outwardly visible.

A Livestock Protector, or Kamdijot, wears the most colorful and least patterned clothing, visible from a distance and distinct from natural surroundings. Their trousers or tall stockings are very thick and cover the full leg to protect from undergrowth and pests.

A Clothmaker, or Sisaln, wears their own very intricately decorative and meaningful, often figural textiles. These show off their talent as well as that of their family, and can often be based on a dream. Generally, such textiles involve many different colors but rely more on contrast than saturation.

A Goatsinger, or Misasmn, has the longest and most flowing skirts with the most fabric. Misasmn are the only ones whose skirts may reach below the calves and are often nearly to the ground. Their patterns are abstract and exclusively horizontal, to complement spins and twirls. The Goatsinger's songs are sacred rather than romantic or recreational, with sounds mimicking those of nature, conversation, or productive activities such as sewing.

Finally, a Cook, or Siumasi, wears thick and easily washed clothing with dark colors so that stains do not mar it. Their sleeves for indoor clothing are the only ones that do not cover lower than the elbow. They wear trousers, but these are very loose as opposed to the tight Kamdijot trousers, as these are meant for moving in a kitchen or acquiring ingredients rather than braving nettle patches to recapture animals.

### Courtship Ideals

A traditional Rhisl marriage is for the creation of a family and a household, as well as for well-rounded practicality, rather than for love. The marriage ideally involves three or more individuals, a Cook, a Livestock Protector, a Clothmaker, and possibly a Goatsinger although this role has much less focus on marriage if any. Having two or more individuals with the same chosen role in one marriage is taboo, and any level of a romantic or sexual relationship between two of the same role is seen as mere friendship, exploration, practice for a "real relationship", or childish rebellion. However, such "exploration" is encouraged before marriage and seen as a necessary creation of experience and independence.

Any combination of the three or four individuals in a marriage, or none, may or may not consummate the marriage, as long as at some point children are born or taken in.

When one is prepared and officially seeking marriage, they generally exemplify their gender role, taking on more responsibilities, dressing more archetypally, and boasting of their talent(s) within their role.