Hivokian
Hivokian is the name given to the people who occupy the settlements of Hivokia. They were originally ruled by the dwarfs who united most of the tribes of Hivokia under their banner at the beginning of the Civilising Age and are currently led by the elf King Sadamu Otori. The Hivokians are a feudal kingdom and a caste based society with the King ruling all the Isles which are divided up into Prefectures which in turn are ruled by the Nobel Lords.
Recently Hivokia has undergone an era of peace and prosperity. The Warrior Caste has been reduced to a largely ceremonial role, acting as administrators for the Aristocracy and the King. Hivokia is a kingdom with a rich tradition of ceremony and pageantry with even the simplest of actions such as enjoying a meal taking on ritual status. While peace reigned within the Land the Peasant Caste became masters of their various crafts and own riches beyond the dreams of peasants in most other parts of the world.
Naming Traditions
Family names
Common Prefixes: Aka, Aki, Hos, Eno, Fuj, Ish, Kata, Kon, Mak, Mat, Nag, Nish, Sai, Sak, Shi, Taka, Tsu, Ura, Yama, Yosh
Common Suffixes: ta, yama, kawa, i, moto, mura, saka, saki, sawa, shima, hashi, tani, o, ya, tsu, oka, ki, no, hara, kuchi
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Common
Culture and cultural heritage
Founded by the Dwarves shortly after the Civilising Age, the Caste system is derivative of Dwarven Culture which puts heavy stock into rank and station. Hivokia has taken much of their aesthetics from the Elven settlers who joined the Caste system as well as the importance placed on pageantry and ritual.
Average technological level
Bronze Age
Common Etiquette rules
Bowing is the standard greeting and farewell, and depending on the depth of the bow and its duration, one can immediately tell who is the superior and who is the inferior. Equals and friends may bow with little more than an inclination of the head informally, but a formal situation requires formal behavior. The most reverential form of bowing is a prostration, with one’s forehead touching the ground.
Common Dress code
Wide brimmed, straw hats keep the sun off of peoples heads and are a staple across all of the Castes.
Peasants wear simple linen, wool and hemp tunics and trousers with sandals in a variety of natural tones.
The Warrior Caste wear expensive silks and linen robes, vibrantly died in rich colours and intricately patterned to show their wealth.
Bronze or leather armour made of many overlapping plates, shoulder guards, sleeves a skirt and shin guards. Helmets are slanted to deflect and channel blades away from the body. The more expensive mind are adorned with ornaments or decorations depending on the clan.
Art & Architecture
The current fashion for art is to use as few brush strokes as possible to convey the spirit of the subject being portrayed.
Architecture
Single storied gabled buildings built of lacquered wood with windows and screen doors paneled with heavy, waxed paper. The average house supports a large common room for receiving guests in which the family typically also sleeps on straw matts which are rolled and stored away every day.Funerary and Memorial customs
Festival of the Chimera- A festival of the dead dedicated to remembering those who are no longer alive. A week long occasion marked by fasting during the day and releasing floating lanterns onto rivers or into the air at night before feasting with family
Common Taboos
Rudeness: it is considered uncouth and barbaric to be rude to someone, even a hated enemy. That is not to say that every is nice to each other, only that there is a base level of civility that one must conform to in society in order to progress
Gambling: this activity was declared to be illegal in Hivokia in the Civilising Age by the dwarf Queen Kildaro, who reasoned that it polluted ones spirit. Hivokians can still indulge in gambling however, provided that they can find and gain entrance to a gambling house. These institutions are run by the criminal gangs such as The Nameless.
Historical figures
Toktsu
Susano
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
- Pale skin, often whitened with cosmetics on the face to look polished, while leaving the neck and ears to create contrast.
- Long, glossy black hair, sometimes floor length for women.
- Shaved eyebrows, redrawn with black ink.
- Red lips, enhanced with cosmetics.
Courtship Ideals
For the Aristocracy and Warrior Caste marriage is arranged between the families for political and economic gain. Marriage ceremonies commonly feature a ritualistic binding of the participants wrists with a single, long piece of red ribbon, witnessed by the participants families and friends.
Diverged ethnicities
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