Shared Myths

Starsong is a wild world indeed, but often the realms of mortals have some shared customs, beliefs and myths.

## **Customs**

### Guest’s Rite

* If a host shares food and water with a guest, and the guest willingly accepts, it is considered utterly immoral if either party sheds blood within their shared space.
* This is an Old World tradition, where defying it gets the attention of the Gods. Murdering guests makes them unhappy and stories persist that any who break this right die within the week.
* Many have perished before from disobeying this rule, most famously the murder of the Lord Inquisitor Bane Sorotas by the Hooded Knight. The Hooded Knight was disguised as a local ealdorman and murdered the inquisitor investigating his crimes and his entire entourage.
* The Hooded Knight was brought to justice, but when he escaped he was given Guest's Rite himself by a group of Birians in a family-clan. This clan then ate him for supper.

### Names

* Last names are seen as a luxury by many, but nothing is stopping a family from wanting to track their ancestral history by adopting one. Many will simply just be "Of" their region or town.
* Titles are awarded by lords and ladies, but anyone can be “Of” wherever.
* A “Sir” is noble born while a “Ser” is awarded for great deeds and heroics..

### Marriage

* Marriage is a religious ceremony usually used to bind two noble houses in an alliance, but has different connotations in Aerrune and Boletaria when compared to Dawnforge

* Usually performed by a Lector of the Way in Dawnforge binding (usually) two people.
* Weddings in Boletaria are somewhat different, officiated by Graces in Djaal who are shamans of local spirits.
* Concering the wedding day itself, it is bad luck to not allow knights, lords or ladies to come to your wedding uninvited. Tourneys are usually held for the richer families.
* Like Guest's Right it is bad luck to shed blood on a wedding day. Unless you're Djaalic from a Horde, then a wedding without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair.
* These same Djaalics (typically the Kuu-Lani) are known to practice polygamy. Many Fashas do so too.

### The Law of Inheritance

* Possibly the oddest law, but when a lord or lady passes away they can choose to enact the Law of Inheritance; they have their belongings placed in a dungeon for heroes, half-wits and fools to try to inherit their fortune and possibly join their family.
* This is used often if the successors of the family are of poor moral fiber.
* This way those that invoke this Law can design a dungeon to their whims and ensure only a certain type of character could possibly succeed.

### Slavery

* Slavery is outlawed in Dawnforge, but not Aerrune, Carthus or Boletaria.
* If a Dawnforger or an Aerrunean becomes a slaver, they are exiled from their homeland.
* Slavers tend to find their targets in the wastes, as kidnapping those from cities will invite an investigation.
* Karnerians use criminals and prisoners of war as slaves for gladiatorial games, while common slaves are the workforce.
* Sainites are said to use slaves for dark sorceries and unfair death-games.
* Djaalic use slaves as a labour force unlike any other in its sheer size.
* Carimasi slaves are known as Thralls and treated reasonably well, they are not bound by common rules of slavery and can even marry and have children. These children are not bound to be thralls themselves.
* The Black Empire of Lonqai are known to enslave entire ships, uncaring to their politcal missive. What these slaves are used for can only be guessed.

### Cragsmen

* Cragsmen, due to trusting their lives on it, have many superstitions about the sea.
* It is good luck to drink from the same glass, wineskin, flagon or horn when departing for the unknown.
* It is good luck to have a Triton on board their ship. It is extremely bad luck if they’re a prisoner.
* It is bad luck to refuse safety to a Triton.
* Whistling encourages wind, but beckons a storm
* Every magic caster needs someone watching them in a fight.
* It is good luck to get tattoos of Azarus, the Earth God, so that he will wash you ashore should you fall overboard. The Sea Mother Zamanthras finds this disrespectful, so cragsmen must hide these tattoos.
* Every port-town and coastal city has a shrine to Zamanthras. This is the last place a cragsman visits when leaving and the first place when they arrive.
* The only time it’s okay to sing sea shanties on land is if the singer has a vial of seawater with them.
* Cragsmen do not talk about the families or loved ones while at sea; this makes the Sea Mother jealous.
* Cragsmen Seasworn keep track of great deeds by corresponding tattoos.
* Every ship has a small animal that is special to the Sea Mother. This animal has first priority over all else. Should the animal die, the crew will follow.
* You can always recognise a ship’s crew by their shanties. Dwarf and Orcs are slow and rhythmic, Elves and Tieflings are haunting, Dragonman and Triton are overlapping and maddening, Halfling and Gnome are bright and cheery, and humans are as wide and as varied as the sea.

### The Shroud

* The name for the last rite performed by Gevrauchians on the newly dead.
* It is bad luck to use this salute on any time other than when burying the dead.
* The shroud salute is simply passing a hand over your eyes and mouth, mimicking the closing of the eyes of a newly dead man.

## **Pantheons**

### The Way of Light

* A collection of human gods typically worshipped by Dawnforgers.
* These are only the New Gods, those established during the Darkness and later realized as the most common pantheon for humanity.
* Comprised of the Betrayed, the Flayed God, Talanas, Gevrauche, and Velka.
* The Raven Queen was once recognised but given her death she was replaced by husband Gevrauche.lf.

### The Primordial

* Zamanthras, The Flayed God and Eshua.
* Zamanthras, the First God to who her form encompasses every ocean, every depth and everything within.
* The Flayed God, to whose skin was stretched thin atop Zamanthras, forming the lands, trees, rock and mountains.
* Eshua, whose ballads and tapestries created beasts, creatures and their mysteries.
* Worshippers of the Primordial believe that they were washed ashore by Zamanthras, to the skin and bones of the Flayed God where Eshua's creatures were crawling out of the mud like any beast; whole and real.

### Monotheisms

* Karneria keeps only Daeon, the God-King, as their god and ruler.
* Shicts who do practice worship only worship the Beast-God Ryffid.
* Jackals only worship Silf the Six-Fingered, Lady Darkness Herself.
* Zamanthras is usually solely worshipped by Cragsmen and Tritons.

### Creeds

* Daxia keeps no god, instead choosing to rule as a godless theocracy where they worship the strength and willpower of man rather than the gods.
* Sainites keep a thousand gods, each different facets of existence. This rule of living is only known as the Udun.
* The Drow of the Black Empire of Lonqai are believed to worship a singular idea or concept rather than a god.
* The Deepwater Cragsmen worship the Deep, a pantheon of animals with rather sinister connotations.
* The Woodswraith are shamans who believe in the spirit of the forests they inhabit.
* The Pact of Splendour are a cult worshipping the material.

## **Crimes and Punishment**

### The Law

* Laws and rules will always depend on the region you find yourself in.
* In some lands they operate by the “Law of Retribution” meaning that you “Face unto yourself what you deal unto others.”
* Dawnforge operates under the Collection, a system of rules created by the Inquisition. These often leave rules of men to lords of the land, while the rules of magic are governed by them.
* When matters of lords and ladies are brought to court, the Inquisition are called.
* The Inquisition have several orders; Ordo Xenos, Hereticus to name some. They deal with men and metal, the Venarium with magic and monsters.
* Many lords have their own justice, and differ from Ostora to Stygia and everywhere between.

### Crimes

* Because of regeneration and resurrection, murder and mutilation is dealt with differently.
* Victims can be resurrected if their family has the coin, but the murderer is still dealt with justly.
* Dealing with criminals depends on where you are in the world, but the greatest crimes of all remain the same; murder, treason and assault. The very worst crime of all is defying the laws of magic, however you do so.
* That is where the Venarium come into play. What they do to heretics is unknown.

### Punishment

* Murderers and the treasonous are typically privately executed, cremated into ash where the ash is salted with Dimeritium dust and placed in an unmarked urn in a non-existent catacomb.
* This prevents resurrection, no matter how hard others may try.
* In Boletaria, public executions and mutilations are common. Open wounds are salted with Dimeritium and Kraytviper to prevent magical regeneration for a dozen years at least.
* In Dawnforge, traitors, thieves and murderers are placed in Tower Retribution, a black cell where nobody has ever escaped from.
* In the Crawling City of the Waste, criminals are granted the Toss. They are tossed off the side by a giant. If they live, they live. If they die, they do not live.
* In Paradiso the Law of Retribution means that anyone can respond to a crime in equal or worse measure. This leads to blood feuds lasting for generations.