Wooden Flute
The instrument of field workers and the poor under the Raithar Empire, the simple wooden flute is still a favorite for that traditional Valoran sound, especially during the Raithsfall holidays.
Significance
Under Raithar, music was one of the few forms of cultural expression that could still deviate from the imperial standard. While the empire favoured brass or stringed instruments and bombastic music, their "proper" music was considered too complex and refined for most to master. Field workers, servants, and other poor naturally turned to "simpler" music using "primitive" instruments--whatever they could make for themselves. Afterward the fall of Raithar, the music that brought them through oppression was neither forgotten nor abandoned.
While reed flutes are more common in Anteus and, to a lesser extent, in Shaodan, the other countries generally carve flutes from wood. There is much debate over the best kind of tree to use, and each flute-maker has their own favorites. Greenreaders and Fauns tend to be particularly choosy about the wood used for their flutes, not so much as a matter of sound as of the tree's significance.
Wooden flutes are especially popular in Valor, which has continued to refine and evolve the music created with them. Though played year-round, they feature especially in the work songs and the celebratory music played during Raithsfall.
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