Hospitality Code

Hospitality is the true backbone of polite Stenza behavior. It allowed for the protection of hunting parties during Hunting Season, and it fostered peace, temporary or otherwise, between clans during migration. Hospitality was called on implicitly at the onset of the Battle with the Stone Menace in order to gather everyone together to face a larger threat.
The Clan of the Lost was founded based on a form of hospitality.

The universe provides, and sometimes what the universe provides is you.

— Creyth

History

While 'Elokh droga are widely held to be the originators of hospitality rules in their modern form, folklorists speculate that what the clan actually did was codify behaviors that, up to that point, had been unwritten and therefore subject to someone's ignorance. The earliest iterations of these practices centered on migration and hunting season and were probably based on the assumption that the Frozen Wastes was home to at least one powerful being that it would be absolutely foolhardy to offend. (There are no accepted lines delineating either the origin of the practices or the separation of Jeshra into the Snow Warrior and Pups.)
The practices as codified for migration began to spread as other uses became apparent. Although it never fully worked, during each inter-clan conflict and war, officers on opposing sides would often play host to one another as a forum for peace talks. Additionally, a coalition of veterans offered hospitality and friendship to broken clans, orphans, and other adrift persons to give them a place to go until they could rebuild or be reintegrated into another clan. This group would eventually become known as the Clan of the Lost, and remains in operation well into the present, counting among its ranks T'zim-Sha and Ta'zhen.
When the Stone Menace crashed into Mudewei and attacked the Stenza, Iradae the Lawgiver used a variation on the above peace talks strategy in order to bring the leaders of the clans together to deal with the threat. The eleven-year-long battle forged bonds of hospitality into a vast web of blood sibling relationships and forever changed the Stenza political landscape.
In the early decades of the peace which followed, the tunnel system connecting settlements, expanded during the war, facilitated an unprecedented amount of travel. It was said that food and drink flowed freely around the Ice Flats in those days. Strares, the site of the original accords, became a preeminent city, and completely remodeled its residence to accomodate the people moving in from other parts of the Ice Flats.
It has since become apparent, however, that Stenza hospitality is imperfect and unevenly applied. Sandibari are welcomed freely, but aliens from other worlds in other star systems are as likely to receive cold indifference as open hostility. Additionally, these bonds do not hold forever; political, social, and cultural disputes as well as long-held grudges and pent up violent tendencies have resulted in one civil war, as well as the common practice of legislative violence in the Council Room. Despite all of this, the Clan Killings and destruction of 'Elokh has led to renewed interest in the history of the customs of hospitality, allowing even a human to be welcomed.

Execution

Hospitality encompasses a wide array of behaviors and expectations of both host and guest. 'Elokh droga were known to lay out guidelines of behavior to ensure a peaceful migration, which gradually spread among the clans as general good practices involving either hosting visitors or visiting oneself.
Hosts are to provide easy access to food, sleeping quarters, and an area with which guests can place their belongings in case they need them. Guests, in turn, do not generally comment on the quality of the accommodations for as long as they are hosted. A host may ask a guest questions about their journey or other salient matters, and a guest is almost always obliged to answer truthfully. While in most cases Stenza do travel with weapons, it is forbidden to use them either with a fellow guest or on the host; all combat is reserved for outdoor areas.
In migratory and hunting settings, the role of host is assumed by the Snow Warrior and Pups, specifically Migration and Hunter respectively. All mortals in the arrangement are guests, with the expectations to cooperate with both each other and the host (in this case, understood through eons of tradition and the occasional interpretation by a religious expert). Failure is considered (either in practical or superstitious terms) to result in some tragedy, ranging from disappearance to a calamity akin to The Lean Years.

Components and tools

The halved 'alashaia fruit is the traditional symbol of hospitality.

Primary Related Location

Mudewei