The Creation of the World

The following excerpt from Biata writings show how the Biata believed the world of Teana was formed.
The Sun travelled through the Darkness and he knew what it was to be lonely. The Sun rested and in his loneliness he cried, and his tears mingled with the Darkness and became the silver Moon. And the Moon went to the Sun and asked him why he cried. The Sun knew that he was alone no more and his tears dried. But the Moon was too young to handle the Sun's fiery regard and so the Moon asked the Darkness to build it a Shield.
The Darkness took stuff from itself, the Moon and the Sun and fashioned the World. The Sun and the Moon circled the World and it was good. But Death who walked the Darkness was angry, for the Sun had ignored her and she wished to have companions too. And so she cast her power at the World. But the Darkness wished to protect its creation, so Darkness absorbed and altered Death's power and from the World, Life sprung forth.
First was the long lived races such as Dwarves and Elves. But the Shield of Darkness grew weaker, and those of shorter life span was born. Finally, the Biata emerged and Darkness knew that their lives would be all too brief, so he gave them a special gift. They would know not one life, but many; travelling from life to death to life and death again, until their spirits had found true meaning and satisfaction and were ready to rest eternally.

Conflict For one Biata to kill another is strictly forbidden by the Shikra. Only under the most exceptional circumstances will violence against a fellow Biata be tolerated. In order to settle their differences, especially during mating season, Biata males have devised a complicated insult game called Gali Dana.
In Gali Dana two Biata will throw truly inventive and colourful insults at each other, until one of the participants cannot think of an appropriate response within 5 seconds, at which point they have lost the game.
Quite often matches of Gali Dana become popular contests to watch, with the popular crowd opinion adjudicating the contests.