Horn Cuffing
A Verin Tradition
Little Oni wiggled as her mother rapped the divider of a cuff, pushing it into the malleable prongtip of one of her horns. "That hurts!"
"No it doesn't," her mother said. It was jarring, sure, but not painful. Horns barely had any nerves in them. "I'm almost done, hush."
She carefully measured, cut, and sealed another cuff before squeezing it onto the left-side twin of the prong she had just cuffed. She tapped it into place with a padded mallet.
"I don't like it!" Oni said, pouting.
"Don't you want to look like a princess?" Only a couple cuffs left, little Oni was looking very regal for her age with 6 prongs.
"...yes," Oni relented with a sigh.
A Creative Tradition
Horn Cuffing, cuffing, is the Verin tradition of shaping and decorating their horns.
Cuffing is named for the primary component of the tradition, horn cuffs, but also includes a variety of other tools such as: engravings, filigree, jewel encrusting, wire wraps, cloth hangings, jewelry, and closed cuffs to stunt the growth of horns.
This list is not exhaustive, Verin groups all over Ethnis constantly find new ways to decorate their horns.
A Malleable Medium
Verin horns grow from the tip outwards and slowly get thicker over time. Though their horns do not naturally bisect, if a constant, light pressure is put onto the soft tip of a prong it will eventually bisect into two prongs and continue growing as such.
This is the basis of the art of cuffing.
I love this tradition. Small, but loving detail for a people, and the quote is just incredibly cute!
Thank you! So much of my writing so far for Ethnis has captured its absurdity, wars, and horror that I wanted to actually make some content about more domestic and slice-of-live details of the setting. I'm glad you liked it!
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