Ancestors └▪▪┘╞╪╡
Ancestors of the Eastern clans. They were nomadic peoples living communally in circular tents. They were matrilineal* people with children belonging to their mother's* tribe.
While the ancestors of the Clans of the ▪╪╪▪ settled in the broadleaf forests with its rich meadows, the ancestors of the ╚╞╪╡ traveled north and settled around the northeastern coast and the ancestors of both the Clans of the ╪╪╧ and the ┌┐╞╪╡ traveled south to the harsher terrain of the mountains, taiga, and tundra.
The tribes of the Ancestors acknowledge at least three genders and don't traditionally assign tasks based on gender. Aptitude and interest is more important than any physical characteristic.
Their spoken language is currently extinct, but their sign language is still used, mostly unchanged, by their descendants.
* These words are not entirely accurate descriptors due to the cultures understanding of gender. The word 'mother' is being used as a shorthand to describe the person who gives birth, the word 'father' is used as a shorthand to describe the one who impregnates. This ignores the gender of the individual despite using gendered words due to a limitation of the English language.
Physical appearance
Common eye colours:
- Grey
- Green
- Brown
- Blue
Culture
Shared customary codes and values
Virtues:
- A sharp wit, especially with a matching sharp tongue. "Fair criticism is invaluable, so long as you know how to apply it".
- Kindness, "The world can be cruel, unkind and unfair, if we act the same then nothing gets better".
- A strong sense of community, "Many people claim they can live alone. In a home somebody else made, eating food somebody else prepared for them, wearing clothes made for them. I trust you are smart enough to see the flaw in their reasoning."
- Precision, "You can hit a vital organ and we'll be feasting by sundown, or you can hit a non-vital organ and we'll be chasing it all day, your choice"
Vices:
- Blind obedience to dogma, "If it's stopped working, why are you still doing it?"
- Hollow courtesy, "Words without action are just noise".
- Random violence, "Those who act like feral beasts can sleep outside."
- Disrespecting things unfamiliar to you, "People do things for a reason. If you can't see the reason, keep watching".
- Over-generosity, "no matter how willings someone is, they cannot feed anyone with an empty cookpot"
Common Dress code
For the Ancestors and their descendants' clothing is largely unisex. Made from whatever is locally available and decorated with dyes, shells, beads, feathers, and fur. The dyeing of fabric is fairly recent; before then patterns would be made with the natural colours of various fibres.
Hair is typically long and in braids.
Art & Architecture
The Ancestors lived in circular buildings around the main campfire, this architecture is still seen in the dwellings of their descendants.
The interior of the dwellings are richly decorated with either tapestries or wall paintings depicting the world around them.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Never cook an animal you have killed. Eather eat it raw as nature intended or give it to others to cook and share a meal with them. The stated reason for this is the animal's spirit needs to be appeased, this can either be done by brute force method of eating it raw, or the hearth keeper can ritually prepare and cook it.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Infants are not given true names, those are chosen by the child when they are eight years old. They are instead given 'cradle names' to use until their [confirmation of the self].
Coming of Age Rites
When a young person comes of age their community holds a Ceremonial marking, where the community's holy person marks the new adult to physically show they have left childhood behind.
In the ┌┐╞╪╡ and the ╪╪╧ ╞╪╡ marking is a tattoo, whilst in ╚╞╪╡ it is a decorative scar, ▪╪╪▪╞╪╡ prefer to use paint for the ceremony.
Funerary and Memorial customs
While the Ancestors believed the spirit of a person left the body when they died, there was a belief that an 'echo' of the person would be left in the body. This led to the creation of talismans made out of the bones of their ancestors. This practice still exists today in their descendants.
Diverged ethnicities
Related Organizations
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