The Bale-Fire Clan

Aloof and proud are the two words best fit the Bale-Fire Clan, the Cat Clan of the Crane Basin. They often dote on ceremony especially reverent to one of the four Great Spirits, The Star, of the Basin, from which they claim descent. They are among the honored few clans in the Basin to hold the title of Greater Clan, a title they have held indefinately for many many hundreds of years. This tradition runs deep within the clan, even the youngest among them devoted to the clan's prestige and the continued elevation thereabout.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

A standard and most common language shared among the Bale-Fire Clan is not actually the Kyomi, the common tongue of the Crane basin, as the clan uutilizes a lanuage native to themselves and only themselves. The Bale-Fire Clan most commonly speaks to each other, especially weithin the walls of their homes and capital city through a pattern of speech called Prygi. Prygi uses a combination of sounds, gestures, and expressions of the face to communicate. It is a language known and communicable only to the cat-folk of the Bale-Fire Clan, despite other cat-folk outside of the Basin practice something eerily similar.
Kyomi is more commonly used when abroad or when interacting with folk outside of the clan.

Culture and cultural heritage

Within the clan there are few, if any, subdivisions of heritage, as the clan claims they are all descendants of the Star and therefore are of one litter. This has led to a strong sense of community living among the clan. Whole communities take responsibility for the raising of young alongside the birth parents.
The greatest asset the Bale-Fire clan is what gives them their name and that is the bale fires they are known to be able to ignite and utilize to greater purpose than simply an enchanted fire. With the bale fires, the clan has been known to communicate through them as well as walk through them like a sort of fixed teleportation. The bale fires are also used to consecrate sacred ground, ceremonies, and rites, including the calling of their patron spirit, the Star, in order to commune and council with. The bale fires are one of if not the most integral part of the Bale-Fire clan's society and culture.

Shared customary codes and values

Patience and vigilance are two of the primary values of the Bale-Fire clan as they can often seem aloof to the point of distracted, but it is in fact, the clan's tradition of watching and waiting for the right time to act. Though some lean towards one value or the other, a most noticable split between the patient city dwelling neko and the more vigilant rural cats. Those of the clan who are observed exercising the greatest amount of patience in order to be the most shrewd through their vigilance are celebrated as true exemplars of the clan's traditional values.

Common Dress code

There is not a strict dress code among the Bale-Fire clan, though they do seem to traditionally wear their gatou robes loosely as they can be a rather active people and are known to sit idlly for hours, then clamber suddnely, so they appreciate their freedom of movement from their garments. Their folk are fond of wearing bells all over themselves; from their wrists and ankles, around their necks, in their hair, hung about their ears or off their tails.
It is not common to see neko wearing shoes either in the streets or within their homes. The pads on the soles of their feet are tough and durable, serving as sole enough to the point where many cats will look visably uncomfortable when wearing any sort of foot attire, unless practiced in it. Foot and leg wrappings are often the only garment seen about the clan's feet.

Foods & Cuisine

The Bale-Fire clan are traditionally pescatarians, but do eat a balanced diet of root vegetables, wild berry fruits, and game hunted from around their settlements. Traditionally, their dishes contain a great deal of seafood, which they catch in the freshwater rivers within their clan's land holdings, as well as within the Well of the World in the center of the continental island. A delicacy to the Bale-Fire clan would be prawns, lobster, and other crustaceans found primarily along the coast and in the salt water deltas.
It should be noted, that unlike their kithine cousins found elsewhere in the world, the Bale-Fire clan is not fond of milk by itself, but is very fond of milk tea. No one, not even elders of the clan can really articulate as to why there is such a distinction.
Tea is a large part of the Bale-Fire clan traditions, as it is seen as a sign of good will to share a cup of tea with a guest. Tea is often used in many ceremonies to either settle the nerves of the clansmen or set them on edge as they cultivate many different kinds of tea thanks to the moderate climate of the Basin.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

On a yearly basis, the Great Bale Fire in the Capital City of JiJi is relit as a sort of turning of the new year according to the clan's calendar. This ritual is observed by many, if not all, of the clan within the realm, hundreds of neko flocking to the city to participate in the weeklong festivities and ceremony.
The High Priestess of the Bale Fire Keepers, the Keeper of Enchanted Flames, leads the ceremony. She conducts a stream of butterfly paper statues to encircle the entire city. These paper statures would have been made throughout the week of the festival by the clansmen in attendance. Within these folder figures were written hopes, dreams, and fears of the scripting cat, hoping to cast it into the enchanted flames and be set aloft for the next year.
Once the merry swarm of paper butterflies has surrounded and circulated through the entire city, they are infused and glow with arcane energies. A Sacrifice is made, often of a boutiful harvest, but there is record of the sacrifice of a person or clansmen in the past. Then, all of the butterflies are cast into the great brazier at the summit of Mount Jiji to ignite together as one and become the brilliant pale green tongues of the Great Bale Fire.
That evening, great celebration follows of food, music and merriment. Many times, the city has been said to play host to an avatar of the Star who is drawn by the ignition of the Great Bale Fire to sit among its people and share in their celebration. Many have claimed to have sat with the Star, but few can confirm the encounter, only that they had been sat next to a stranger, spoke to them of their woes, their hopes, what they wrote on the butterfly, only to have their year blessed with good fortune.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Within Ellecrid, the Bale-Fire clan holds a very unique perspective on death. The concept of reincarnation is not entirely obscure in Ellecrid, but few cultures who believe in the cycle of death and rebirth can speak to its validity quite as well as the cats of the Basin. The clan posits that when a Neko dies, their spirit does not enter the rivers as others do, or at least does not remain there as the Star, their progenator, will provide a spark of its light within the realm of death to guide the cat through to the secret paths only the gods know in order to reenter the cycle of rebirth. This privillege, the Star grants its children nine times before it calls them to their final rest.
Traditionally, the Clan, when a kin passes, will spend a great deal of time and effort collecting and cataloging everything the desceased did over their lifetime and storing it safely in a secret location known only to the clan. It is believed, and known by the clan, that when one of the cats reincarnates, they will be able to gain access to memories of past lives and should they seek answers, this cashe of chronicles is available to them to better understand who they were in a past life.
In this way, the Bale-Fire clan takes on the responsibility to ensure their future selves are as equiped as possible to understand the past to bring great works to the future.

Common Myths and Legends

It is chronicled in the histories of the basin, that in the Age of Legend, the Star selected one of their offspring to spend all nine of their lifetimes walking the paths of the mountains that surround the Basin while their kin was sent to the mountain of Jiji to establish the first Bale Fire and the settlement that surrounded it. Once the selected neko had walked nine life times among the mountains, the Star bestowed upon them the Mantle of Ceremony, the clan's Sacred Treasure. It was because of these deeds and acts that the Bale-Fire clan was recognized as a Great Clan of the Basin.
The Mantle of Ceremony is said to be a treasure meant to turn the wearer into the spitting image of the Star itself. When honed with the robes, it becomes like a second skin of brilliant white flames, the wearers speed becoming that of a shooting star. The weilder of the Mantle is traditionally the leader of the clan, but great champions have been known to take up the Mantle in times of dire need.
It is said that the four Great Spirits were the cause of the great storm that surrounded the Basin, locking it away from the rest of the world and locking those who dwelt in the Basin within the confines of the ring of mountains. It is also said among the cats of the Basin, that if the Great Bale Fires were to be lit again, the Pact of the Oath-sworn clans could be abolished. It is not the intention of the Bale-Fire clan to abandon the oath, but the strictures of the oath are fragile and the clan believes the lighting of the Great Bale Fires would serve the same purpose, but be less delicate a stricture.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Neko range in presentation from long haired to short haired fured figures, bearing anything from long thin tails to boisterous bushy ones. Their primary distinguishing feature that sets them apart from kithine cats elsewhere on Ellecrif is the commonality of stripes in their coats. They are a tall, bipedeal people with feline features and tall ears. Their generally lithe builds lend to their grace and canter in their stride. Their hands and feet are only slightly smaller than the average humanoid and possess pads and claws they can retract in a limited capasity.
By the amount of time spent grooming themselves, many outsiders would want to assume that the Bale-Fire clan is incredibly vain.This would be a gross misunderstanding of their traditions and customs. The cats of the Basin are masters style and grooming techniques that even outside of the clan, they are sought after for their eye and skill in such matters of courtly presentation in the more pageantry based courts of the Basin.
To appear well groomed, styled, full faced, bright-eyed, and bushy tailed is to be the exemplar of patience, one of the clans most treasured values. It is taking care to adorn yourself with bells as the clan loves to do. It is ensuring that you will not be restrained by your garments and that you have not allowed neglegence to fester troublesome matts that could lead to health problems later.

Gender Ideals

There is definitively no difference within the Bale-Fire clan whether a cat is born male or female. he concept of gender roles is a foreign concept, that when observed sometimes disgusts Bale-Fire cats. With such a heavy emphasis on community growth and living, Basin cats have completely discarded roles surrounding gender save for procreation, to the point that most clansmen use they/them pronouns.

Courtship Ideals

Communal living is apart of the Bale-Fire culture. It permeates every aspect of life for them, including their traditions and ideals of courtship and romance. It is not uncommon for cats of the basin to foster romantic feelings for one another and pursue each other for deep and sometimes intimate relationships, however, the practice of monogamy is fairly uncommon among the clan. More specifically, the possessive nature that can come with an exclusive relationship is not common within the clan as the closer the clan grows together, the stronger the clan becomes. This has led to common practice of a more polyamorous nature with strong romantic and intimate ties to more than one partner.
A common tradition among the neko when it comes to courting one another is the practice of sheering off one's sleeve and allowing their partner to keep it as a token of their affection. This tradition has two initial folk tales surrounding a couple performing this practice; one couple was heterosexual, the second was homosexual. In both senarios, one member of the couple had sat beside the other and rather than disturb their partner's sitting, the other cut off their sleeve. This pair of folk tales has beomce foundational for courtship within the cats.

Major organizations

• Leader: Shirokiba, Lord of Enchanted Flames
• Governence: Royal Bloodline
• Capital City: Jiji

The Bale-Fire clan have traditionally been something of a dynastic monarchy for as long as the chronicles can recall, dating back to their founding as a Greater Clan. The society does practice an absolute primogeneture succession, leading to the leaders of the clan being male, female, and unisex. When annointed as the leader of the clan, the annointed will traditionally take the title of Lord of Enchanted Flames, which they would hold until their death.
The Lord of Enchanted Flames hosts something of a royal court in the capital city of Jiji, but it is not populated by noble lords and ladies, at least in titles. The entourage and court of the Lord of the cat clan is often occupied by scholars, samurai, sages, community leaders, farmers, fishers, and other members of their clan who happen to be in attendance on any given day. This lax approach to the royal court has fostered a greater sense of tightnittedness among the cats of the basin as anyone can have the ear of the Lord on any day and the Lord can speak with anyone they so choose to.
There are no other considered nobility among the clan. That is not to say cats of the basin who dwell outside of the clan have not adopted certain idealized nobility quirks, such a practice is not traditionally seen within the realms of the Great Clan. Thanks to their community traditions, territorial governence from hamlet to hamlet, or town to town is done by elected constables of a sort, often, these are the annointed samurai and their entourage who have sworn fealty to the Lord of Enchanted Flames. Othewrwise, these are community members that have been selected due to age, respect, or raport with matters of the clans' holdings.
The Bale Fire Keepers is a small clerical order within the clan that sees to the tending of the enchanted braziers and the pale green flames that reside within them. The order is anywhere there is a Bale Fire, even outside of the clan's territory and are treated with the uttmost respect by members of the clan and those outside of the clan who are aware of the order's calling. It is a great aspiration for cats of the Basin to aspire to join the order. The head of the order is often of the royal bloodline and is titled Keeper of the Encanted Flames.
The Bale-Fire clan does practice the institution of Samurai, as does much of the Basin. They do not differ greatly, if at all from other clan's interpretation of the pseudo knightly practice, but the cats are not often seen mounted. As an aside, the clan's military does not actually have a great deal of mounted offerings. It is not as though the neko do not have redied access to horses or other mounts, they seem to prefer to not be mounted and this is very common among their samurai.

Other Names: The Cat Clan of the Basin, The Great Cat Clan, The Star Children, Children of the Star
Leader: Shirokiba, Lord of Enchanted Flames Government Style: Royal Bloodline, Monarchy Lifestyle: Communal

Related Organizations

• The Great Spirits of the Grove

Related Items

• The Mantle of Ceremony

Related Locations

• The Crane Basin