Oronai Peoples
"To the East of the Albine Mounts lies the land of Oronia, home to a brave and tuff people called the Oronai, or Oronians. They're famous throught the continent for their skills and bravery in battle and many kings sought to hire them as mercenaries because of this. They have few cities and most of them live in settlements up in the hills where is main occupation is to breed cattle and horses and farming. Although in the past they fought among them, now all of them obvey a King who holds supreme power over the land and command them in battle, because as they said, it is the duty of every king to fight alongside his fellow soldiers for the security and honor of their motherland"Sarvad, seris author, "About the land and peoples of Teria" (written ca. 84 AP)
"I am most displeased with those highlanders", Tiberius VI, Ikarian emperor, after their defeat at the fortress of the 10.000 in 435AP.
The Oronai peoples, brave warriors and adventurers alike. For some, civilized men, for others a bunch highlanders with archaic traditions long gone for others. Strengthened by the snows, the wind a hard work, this people are tuff but also refined. Together with the Ikarians/Blatians, they form a unique cultural and linguistic group inside the Davidovian peoples. Believed to have had the same origins, being descendants of the mythical hero Ikaros, son of Davidion, the Oronai peoples share a lot of traditions with their cousins to the east. Protected by the mountains and making good use of the fertile land in the valleys, the Oronai people has thrived. But not also that, they have conquered much of the Center of the continent of Teria thanks to the great king Magas, and have spread their culture and language throught the conquered territories. To the South, near the great Delta and the coast of the Storm Sea they have mixed with the elvish population of the region where their half-elf offspring are called Elvish-Oronai peoples who are the majority of the population of the Kingdoms of Stormitia and Brire.
Naming Traditions
Feminine names
Maia, Puppa, Nix, Sipha, Kassandra, Clio, Calliope, Mena, Nikaea, Pneside, Cinane, Tylis.
Masculine names
Demetrios, Kassandros, Menander, Evander, Amyntas, Arrideos, Archaelaos, Sophites, Kalos, Magas, Boros, Antiochos, Antigonos, Alkeus.
Family names
Orontid, Bratonid, Kassandrid, Eumenid, Achaeid, Menandrid, Philonid
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The Oronai speak the Oronai language, closely related to the Ikarian language, which belongs to the Davidovian family of languages. There are three types of oronai dialects, one is called the Common or Oficial dialect, that is used by the court, the nobilty and the administration for public documents and speeches. The others are the so called, western and eastern dialects. The boundries between both dialects is the river Stiridimon, in the middle of the kingdom. Both dialects are inteligeble as the differences are only mostly phonetic. The western dialect is closer to the Blatian language in terms of pronuntiation while the eastern is more innovative.
Culture and cultural heritage
The culture of the Oronai is very ambiguous depending on their neighbours perception about them. For quite a lot of time, for the Ikarians, the Oronai where a kind backwater brothers or cousins, a bunch of highlanders, but later on, and due to the effort of their kings in modernizing the kingdom following the image of the Ikarian Empire, this perception changed and now they are considered civilized but retaining some archaic customs and traditions long gone in the now Blatian territories. The Elves consider them civilized peoples and trustworthy, the Sephenians,despite being the traditional rivals of the Oronai, considered them civilized too, the same goes to the Chorai and the nomads to the north.
Despite having a very "homogeneous" culture in the eyes of their neighbours, the truth is that there are slight differences between oronai regions, specially between Upper and Lower Oronia. Upper Oronia is the highland area. Oronai here are tuff and very warlike since ancient times. In the past, Oronai villages fought among each other for cattle and pastures. But since the country became more centralized and with the expansion of pastures to the south, these disputes are long gone. But still the cold climate of the Albine mountains has shaped the character of Oronians from these regions. Oronians from the Lowlands see them as primitive, archaic in their rituals, closer to what the Oronai resemble before the reforms by Amyntas V and their successors. Highland Oronians still live in hill villages, often at the site of old the hillforts, built by the first Oronai centuries ago, and, instead of a great plaza or main square, these villages are organized around a Megaron, the last reminiscent of the old Palace complex of the Yavana culture and of the age of the Oronai petty kings before the unification of the city. The Megaron is the house of the village chieftain and in its courtyards are resolved the main disputes of the village. Their main way of subsistance is cattle and horse raising (From these places came the colonists who settled in the Parana Valley in the Kingdom of Brire) in addition to growing rice .
The Oronai from the lowlands are seen as "weak" and "too sophisticated" by their highland compatriots. The lowlands are the richest and most populated part of the kingdom and also the area that has been more exposed to foreign influence (mainly the ones from their Ikarian cousins to the East). Lowland Oronai are the closest culturally speaking to the Ikarians and Blatians, to such degree that Blatians and Oronai from both sides of the frontier shared many common songs and musical instruments. The Lowlands, also called the "Valley area" by the Oronai are famous for their forests, but also for their endless fields of wheat and vineyards.
Shared customary codes and values
The Oronai consider valor in combat very highly. The Oronai are quite militaristic, and warfare plays an important part in their society. Every Oronai male is expected to defend their cities and their Kingdom as hoplites (and in later centuries as a phalangite and a cavalryman too). Those who fell in battle are regarded as national heroes and are object of praise and veneration.
This mlitaristic attitude is also shared by the Oronai aristocracy (the wealthy and more powerful landowners and courtiers) who, since ancient times, have formed the main cavalry regiments of the kingdom, specially of the Royal Guard. Oronai nobles often bragged about the powerful enemy nobles that they had captured or slain in the battlefield and often carried some of their jewelry or precious objects as "war trophies".
Average technological level
Although they had a more archaic technological level in the past, compared to the neighbouring Ikarians/Blatians, now they are mostly equal to them, and even they have surpased them in fields like, craftmanship, philosophy and magic.
Common Dress code
Every Oronai male wears a type beret called "Kassa" in the Oronai language and then a tunic and leather boots or sandals.
The king usually wears his clothes coloured dyed in purple as it is the color or royalty. Also they wear a diadem as simbol of their kingship. It can be also purple but more often they are golden.
Women usually wear ankle length tunics. For the commoners these tunics are made of cotton or linen, while noble women might have their tunics made of imported silk from Blati or the Seris Empire .Art & Architecture
Oronai architecture is pretty much similar to those of the
The Blatians . Their temples and public buildings are mostly built in stone and their roofs covered with . Then the noble houses are built in stone too but the poor built their houses mostly with bricks, clay or wood.
Their art is also similar to those of their cousins. Its very realistic, specially painting and sculpture.
Another famous artistic tradition of the Oronai are their painted ceramics. They can be black with orange figures or orange with black figures (the latter is the most archaic form of vase painting). They depict both daily life scenes or mythological ones and
they are in high demand across Teria. For example there is a section in one of the art galleries of the Palace of the Blatian Emperors that is dedicated to Oronai vase painting.
Foods & Cuisine
Oronai food mostly consists of vegetables, meat, bread and olives and rice. Meat, specially cow meat is eaten only during specific festivals where cows are sacrified, while sheep meat is more common as well as chicken meat. The most consumed vegetables by the oronai are lactuce, cabbage and turnip.
Oronai often have three meals during a day:
- Ethyría (Breakfast): Breakfeast time begins at sunrise. Oronai often eat cheese and wheat and honey biscuits called Anambas. Another variation of Breakfast is eating Anambas accompanied with a glass of milk. Specially in rural areas, peasants would often drink a glass of schnapps, called Dentis in the Oronai language after eating the Anambas and before beginning to work.
- Mythia (Launch): Launch consists in eating olives, bread with cheese or jam, a salad or rice with chicken meat. Its usually accompanied by a glass of wine. In Lower Oronia this wine is drunk diluted with water, while in Upper Oronia its drunk undiluted. Fruits are also eaten at the end of lunchtime, specially grapes or cherries during summer.
- Prothomos (dinner): Dinner is served and eaten at sunset and its very simple. It again consists on a glass of milk and Anambas.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
One of the common traditions of the Oronai people are the Athletic competitions, the so called Games. There are a lot of games, each in honor of a diety. The most famous are The Amynteia, held in the royal capital, Phagias, in which athletes of every city of the kingdom compete for glory in sports such as ( running, spear throwing, charriot and horse racing, and sword fighting) and finally the Anaxeia or Archonteia, held in honour of the Oronai kings past and present, held at the ruins of the city of Perias.
The Oronai are also passionate about Theatre, there are theatres almost in every major city in the kingdom. In the past they were made of wood but now they're beautifully made of stone.
One "peculiar" custom that their neighbours, specially their Ikarian/Blatian cousins considered disgusting and barbaric is the fact that Oronai often drink undiluted wine, while for the Ikarians its normal and appropiated to drink it diluted with water. This has created the common myth of the Oronai as heavy drinkers and wine lovers. And, althought there is some truth in it, it is not as exaggerated as many Blatians believe.
Another tradition related to wine (which is so important for the Oronai that they have an entire festival for the vintage season) are symposia, banquets hold by the aristocracy that involve games, drinking wine and engage in philosophical disputes. Perhaps this tradition is the one that reinforced the idea of Oronai "heavy drinking", but for the Oronai, the Symposia are not done in order to get drunk, but to have a nice time chatting with friends.
Last but not least, Oronai preserved some ancient Davidovian traditions that became lost to time in the Ikarian and Seris cultures, in this case, war dances. Before the 4th century AP, it was common for Oronai armies to perform war dances in front of their foes as a way of frighten them or taunt them. Nowadays these war dances are used sometimes by hoplites or other type of soldiers aside the pike phalangites; but they are mostly performed by armed soldiers during religious festivals, in particular during the festival of Meithon and Psephone, the twin gods of war, in front of the temples of these deities. This war dances are often accompanied by musical instruments, most commonly flutes and drums.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
They are pretty much the same as The Blatians
Coming of Age Rites
They also are the same as The Blatians
Funerary and Memorial customs
In this case, things are different to the Blatians. Oronai people preffer burying their dead in large tumuli where various members of the family can lie and be worshiped, as the Oronai believe that the deceased protect them in their afterlife. So they offen visit the tombs to pay repect to their love ones, to ask them to guide them or even only to speak with them, like they were in a house. These tumuli often have a libation chamber, connected to the surface by a whole at the top where the family does the libations to the gods and their deceased.
Another funerary custom of the Oronai, that is very archaic and dates back to the old Yavana Culture that Oronai and Ikarians came from, are death masks. It is true that the Ikarians have dead masks of their ancestors, but they are made of wax and displayed at home, while the oronai, specially the royal family and the nobility bury their dead with weapons and golden masks placed over the face of the deceased.
Common Myths and Legends
Ikarians/Blatians and Oronai shared mostly the same myths and religion. Oronai also claim descent from Ikarus and the goddess Zerah, goddess of Storm and Thunder via Alkeus, second son of Ikarus, who married the Lady of Honey (an assistant of the Goddess Tyr) Athys who lived near the Thysalis Sea. Another interesting myth is that of the formation of Oronia, the region itself. According to Oronai myths this was the place where Meterion, the first god of fire, fell dead by an arrow shot by Pyra, and, because he fell from heavens, the shockwave of the impact of his corpse with the ground destroyed this part of the Albine mountains, creating the great valley surrounded by mountains that is Oronia.
Historical figures
King Glaukias (legendary first Oronai King)
Amyntas V "The Thunderbolt" (king of Oronai, great reformer of the kingdom and vassal of the Ikarian Empire)
Magas the Great ( the most famous Oronai King of the all, famous for his conquest of the Sephenian Empire)
Boros I " the Conqueror" (King of Steplia and Magas's son, famous for conquering the Elvish realms douth of the Tysallis Sea).
Ideals
Gender Ideals
Oronai society is still a very patriarchal society, although in latter centuries the role of women has improved significantly, specially due to the contact with other more "egalitarian" societies like the elven one.
Women are banned from holding any political office and to be serve in the army. Their role is often (as in the case of Oronai aristocratic women) is reserved to be the guardians of the home and to take care of the children. Women for lower classes have less "restricted" roles, as they can have their own bussinesses and properties. Nowadays, and in heavy contrast with the past, women can be elected as the High priest of a city, and there are special cults where women are the only allowed to their priesthood. For example the priesthood of Alara and Pyra, the goddeses of Nature and Fire respectively, is entirely composed of women.
Major organizations
They are the majority of the population in the kingdoms of Oronia ( and the brief Empire of Magas the Great), Steplia and Sylvania, and they are a considerable minority in the kingdoms of Brire and Stormitia (where the vast majority ironically is a mixture of their kin and those of the native elves). They are also present in the Blatian Empire (and its predecesor the Ikarian Empire) and in the Seris Empire, either as merchants or mercenaries.
Parent ethnicities
Diverged ethnicities
Related Organizations
Languages spoken
Related Locations
Nice complex mix of culture, myth and history.