Sterii

The wise men gather on the street corners, heads together in some quiet conversation over the ideal death or the best time to plant tomatoes. Their conversation is long, filled with words the boy barely understands. Words worth double their weight in gold, flow around him, until an uneasy silence stops his well-manicured uncle mid-sentence. The priests are coming, in their silent phalanx they pass, torches high, eyes low and threatening. The words of the gods tumble from the lips of their criers, the incense of heaven from their braziers. Here is the dread power of all things balancing into perfection, all things coming to their ideal end, their perfection, their impossibility. And then they depart and again the rich words come, without passion, without emotion, seeking perfection. The hot day creeps on.

Naming Traditions

Family names

Generally the people of Stereos use a naming tradition consistent with that we can observe in both ancient Greece and Rome, generally having a given name, based on family past or parentage. Only people of high status have a surname or last name.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Common is spoken, usually with a Mediterranean or Italian flavor, but speech tends to be rather stoic as emotion is not part of the ideal as it clouds judgement and perfection, for the ideal has no emotion, but only thought.

Culture and cultural heritage

Culture is passed by public sculpture and written word.

Shared customary codes and values

Outside of the value of ideals, the highest value of the person is the absolute unity of form and function, the perfect unity of mind, body, and social standing. The social value of this person is the union of these three ideals. The steady growth of these ideals is the ideal. Becoming is all that matters.

Average technological level

Lower than Jahlbar, but more mathematically advanced.

Common Etiquette rules

People are expected to fall silent whenever a priest enters a room or building because whatever they have to say is more important. Likewise, a crowd is always to part for a priest. A line is supposed to move for a priest.

When one has a compliment or a complaint it is to be made loudly and publicly, not hidden in any way.

Common Dress code

Dress is simple, commoners wear tunics with belts around the middle, those in higher classes wear togas or complex, but usually unadorned dresses for women. Priests wear complex robes with varying colors and patterns that show their station and importance. They are the only people allowed to wear colors other than white, brown, or black.

Art & Architecture

Art is done in a highly classical manner, sculpture and murals being the most common. That being said, art is often criticized and controlled. The Priests determine what is suitable for public art, for all art is public, for private art is selfish, unsuitable art, just as unsuitable literature, is destroyed or burned. All literature as well is written and publically posted or recorded, diaries are illegal.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Head coverings are worn only by prostitutes or foreigners.

Wearing foreign dress, beyond the norm leads to a temporary shunning from society, including battle-clothes.

Every Sunday morning from dawn till noon all households are required to meet with their neighbors for a time of public discussion and reading of the old scholars.

Every house is required to have a shrine to the deity of the patriarch of the family.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

At birth a child is given a lottery, this lottery determines in which house they will be raised. Upon the date of exchange they are given a small scar by the temple they are going to serve in one of 5 shapes to indicate their future service on the back of their neck.

Coming of Age Rites

One comes of age when one first is allowed to speak publicly, after completing mandatory basic education at a temple, a person is allowed to speak publicly on the forum on a topic of public importance

Funerary and Memorial customs

The ideal is to buried at sea or on the battlefield, but if not, since the body is only the vehicle of the soul it may be burnt or chopped very thin and placed in water to be swept away.

Common Taboos

Privacy is not allowed, save for distasteful things such as using the bathroom, which even when among the public is done publicly in bathhouses, and any kind of romantic relations between partners is hidden away.

Ignoring public holidays is considered incredibly rude and may be illegal.

Common Myths and Legends

One of their great myths is the story is of the founding of Stereos written across several albums called Steriad or sometimes the Gold Volumes. This details the story of how humankind came from the fog across the sea and passed across the sea to the land of the gods, Stereos and dwelt there.

Historical figures

Arguably their greatest celebrity is the poet Ardicus, whose sayings and philosophy infest society. Albeit so many things are ascribed to him it's hard to tell what is what and what is added later. A firm believer in the power of the priesthood.
Another meaningful historical figure is the philosopher Giannis, a spiritualist philosopher who recorded much of the known history of Stereos and the world at the time. His reports are dubious, but he is one of the greatest historical resources on the world.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

In the culture of the Sterii the idea of beauty is highly abstract. Beauty comes in the notion of absolute. The beauty of a thing is in the beauty of its existing. A thing only exists to be the absolute of what it already is in a constant act of becoming more itself. The ideal of all things is the most beautify and the ideal is the only part of a thing which holds value, moving towards that ideal adds in value to a subject.

Gender Ideals

Gender ideals come in fulfilling the absolute of one's gender: If one is male then being an intellectual, a leader of men, a thinker, a warrior and the woman is to be a beacon of purity, artistic inspiration, reliability, and an upstanding leader of the community.

Courtship Ideals

Marriages are arranged by the priest of the temple at which one worships. The suitors, those looking for marriage apply to their priests and must follow their decision, even if it is disheartening or poorly made for the priests know better.

Relationship Ideals

The ideal relationship is the relationship of ideals, or so say the priests. The ideal is helping another person achieve their ideal selves and achieve their highest form of self.

Diverged ethnicities

• Jahlbari

Encompassed species

• Men and Halflings

Related Organizations

• The August Republic of Stereos