Gaburan

Kuzgada Visuvanti, Gaburan ambassador to Louisia

The Gabura are a family-centric culture inhabiting the plains, vast meadows, and steppe regions in between the mountains of the Rhisl. The primary organizational unit is a large extended family of blood, adoption, and marriage, with the elders having the final say in decisions. However, the youth are looked to for fresh ideas and plans, with elders seen as wise and experienced but lacking new concepts.

Things are tense between the Gabura and their Southern neighbors, the Satuva. Gaburan lands originally stretched down into the grassy and marshy areas that the Satuva now inhabit, with the Satuva as a minority nation hugging the coastline and being primarily a naval force. At the beginning of the modern age, as mass media such as the radio began to both shrink and widen the world, the Satuva decided to expand into Gaburan territory and lay their claim on a section of the map, making a name for themselves in the global ledger for the first time.

Today, with Gaburans a small minority in the Southern portion of their native land or crowding further Northern cities, the Satuva insist that the swath of marsh they now occupy was always theirs. Satuvan families have lived on this occupied land for generations, now too intertwined with it to return it to its original stewards without completely uprooting Satuvan livelihoods.

## Naming Traditions

### Unisex names

As in the majority of cultures of Paan Atta, Gaburan personal names are not gender specific. Names are a joint effort of the family elders and the child's birther and can include a wide variety of sounds. Examples include: Kuzgada, Misanuin, Liuradj.

### Family names

Gaburan family names have long forms and unique spoken consonantal emphasis depending on the bearer's age and status. Examples include Visuvanti, Kosouloj, and Tamsbarein. Names are inherited from the birther, as is the norm of those cultures of Paan Atta whose family names are inheritable.

## Culture

### Cultural Garments

Traditionally, tall stockings have leather or cork soles sewn to the bottoms of the feet. These stockings are held up by fabric belts that attach at the upper thigh, or, less commonly, at the hips or waist. Tunics tend to have wide, flaring sleeves that are both held as visually beautiful and allow breeze to cool the wearer's arm. In cooler weather, a close-fitting shirt or undertunic is worn under the outer tunic for added insulation. Belts are usually soft and wide, in colors contrasting the tunic, and sitting at the waist. Simple colors that can be found in nature are historically favored.

### Cuisine

Gaburan food is unique for its inclusion of edible flowers and low-growing plants, not purely as a garnish, but as a large part of the main meal. The task of foraging dandelions, clovers, and wildflowers generally falls to children as they, by nature, are low to the ground.

### Crafts

Gaburan baskets are uniquely patterned and come in a variety of shapes not elsewhere seen. They are more than just a practical object; they have become an art form.

### Shared customary codes and values

One of the main Gaburan cultural values is well-roundedness. A person fixating on one task in their unit is seen as childishly distracted. Everyone is expected to at least dabble in every manner of task that can be taken on, with every member of the extended family sharing work. Gaburans generally lack any tangible gender separation, and their native language sidesteps gendered words entirely.

Cleanliness is also a notable value of the Gaburan, especially to dusty, rough, traveling foreigners who find themselves in Gaburan lands. With an abundance of clear water pouring down from the distant mountains on the horizon, bathing is communal, frequent, genderless, nude, and shared by all ages. Younger family members take honor in helping their elders be clean, even if it is not necessarily needed assistance.

Foreigners may be surprised, or even scandalized, by the lack of modesty when it comes to cleanliness, but bathing in somewhat chilly and quick-running water with stones and grasses underfoot has no inherent sexual connotations. Non-Gaburans are encouraged to think of the bathing stream as a bed, while recreation may occur therein, the primary objective is the required task of sleeping--in a bed's case--or cleaning, without which one may not fully function.

### Common Etiquette rules

It is impolite and ill-advised to clean clothes in the stream at the same time as anyone is cleaning themself, and in the same thread, it is foolish and unsanitary to bathe in any amount of clothing, even with strangers. This is a common mistake for visitors and diplomats, and a very clear mark of an outsider, as is being ill-accustomed to the temperature of the water.

Plants are only taken from the ground to use for sustenance, dye production, or another practical function. The use of these as a souvenir is impolite and wasteful, as well as confusing to Gaburans, who are surrounded by wildflowers every moment in their plains home.

### Art & Architecture

Gaburan homes are striking for their open plan and lack of unnecessary interior walls and doors. At all levels of prosperity, saving lumber is a virtue, and privacy curtains are often in the place of doors. Everyone before or after the fertility age normally sleeps in the same room, with elders keeping children company.

Also notable are the customarily low ceilings with integrated curtain hooks.

### Common Customs, traditions, and rituals

When the full moon reflects on the rushing water in summer and autumn, giving it a mysterious silver sheen, those recently married will stay awake until late at night and bathe alone in the bright moonlight.

There is a version of this custom for those who are betrothed but not married, where they simply kneel at the water's edge and wash one another's hair.

The moon is, mythologically, a large, beautiful, silent eye belonging to the dark goddess with glittering skin who kneels over the planet at night, shielding it with her back as its inhabitants sleep. If a person does something condemnable in secret, it is said that "they allowed not even the confidential goddess' eye to watch."

### Birth & Baptismal Rites

Although birth is not given in running water, both birther and child will soon be walked over to the nearest stream and washed by those closest to them.

Gaburan elders have a somewhat secretive art of seeing patterns in an umbilical cord, passed down from one elder to another by word of mouth. This language is used to create names for a child, with the birther given the final say between the options.

## Ideals

### Beauty Ideals

The Gaburan beauty standard has focus on reflecting light, particularly moonlight. The sheen of hair and skin is valued more than color, with oils applied for health and beauty. Smooth, soft, skin and body shapes are ideal for this purpose. The highest compliments are 'radiant' and 'glowing' as if the person they refer to seems to create their own light the way the moon does when it reflects the hidden sun.

### Courtship Ideals

A valuable courtship is conducted with the knowledge and approval of both families' elders and children, as a marriage joins the families and affects every person in this merging. Although there is no chaperoning, the families are to be aware that there is a courtship, as well as how serious its intents are.

### Relationship Ideals

In a relationship, partners are expected to work together (literally and metaphorically). Each partner is expected to get along amicably with the other family, know their names, and eat with them, even if they are not to join them in betrothal.