Edwinish Culture

RabidFox · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:36 pm Post subject: Edwinish Culture

READ THIS FIRST: The following is an extensive article detailing the many different aspects of Edwinish culture. This article is NOT necessary information. Even if you are creating an Edwinish character, you do NOT need to read this article. This article is only for those of who are interested.

Mythology

Midas The Righteous Hypocrite

The feline population of Edwin believe in a single god named Midas, who is depicted in religious artwork and writings as a strong-minded and righteous Burmese cat. Midas is dressed in great white robes bordered with gold, and a crown of golden leafy vines sits upon his head. His followers live their lives tightly bound to his law, or at least in public eyes anyway. The story of creation, as told by the Edwinish felines, is that all living things were created by Midas, with the furries as the superior species, and the smaller and less intelligent beasts as their inferior counter-parts.

No Cookies For Bad Boys

There are two mythical lands, both of which can only be reached through one’s inevitable death. These two otherworldly places share nothing in common with each other. Think Heaven and Hell. "Heaven" is the Golden Land, the place where all righteous and immature souls go when they die. An immature soul would be a child or someone equivalent to a child in intelligence, such as an animal who is mentally retarded. "Hell" is the Unplace, the place that is not a place, but rather an implosion of the soul itself. Being in the Unplace is like being trapped within your mind, except whilst only experiencing the worst occurrences of your life over and over again without cessation. When someone dies in Edwinish Mythology, they can never be alive again and exist for the rest of eternity as a spirit in either the Golden Land or the Unplace. Predictably, you must live a righteous and just life to end up in the Golden Land, while you will go to the Unplace if you are continually "evil" and/or break any major laws. "Evil" in Edwinish Mythology holds true to the basic trend, such as murder, theft, rape, etc.

Edwinish Class Structure

Royalty - The overall ruling class of Edwin. A member of Royalty always has some land, wealth and power. Some are given control over regiments of the Edwinish Army, and in general are given every privilege the kingdom can afford them.

Nobility - The Kingdom of Edwin is split into 12 Counties, and 3 Principalities. The 3 Principalities, Éireann, Gwynedd, and Fortriou are principalities because they were conquered by the 'Original Counties'. Each county and principality has a Duke and Duchess, and every major city has a Viscount, and every minor town or village has a Baron. These are the Nobility, a secondary ruling class. The Nobility deals with the day-to-day running of their county, or town. Nobility are shown preference in the armed forces, as they have the wealth to buy Commissions as officers. They also have the power to raise Regiments of peasant soldiers in their land or town, these Regiments are usually numbereed, and named after the Noble, for example, a Regiment raised by Lord Falconer would be named "12th, Falconer's Own", and so on.

Clergy - The Church of Midas in Edwin wields some power, and is known to be quite wealthy. It has a major influence with the peasantry, so the Royalty and Nobility will usually try to take actions to keep the Church pleased, and in turn keep the peasants content. The head of the Church is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who lives in Kent. The ranks are as follows, in descending order of rank in the Church:
Archbishop
Bishop
Archdeacon
Priest
Deacon

Gentry - The Gentry are a newly developed class that formed from obscure members of the Nobility that otherwise did not get their fair share of wealth or power. The Gentry own factories, businesses and trades. They are merchants, bankers, owners of industry. If they have Noble blood, they may be granted the title of 'The Right Honourable', but many dismiss their title altogether. They control some wealth, but only power over their workers.

Peasantry - The majority of the population of Edwin is peasantry. This class is for those with no significant wealth, and no power. They are heavily reliant upon the Gentry for money, and the Church, as many are deeply religious. They work the lands, factories and shipyards of Edwin. Many are made into Regiments for their local member of the Nobility. This class includes servants, sailors and soldiers.

Slaves - The Slave Trade is a significant part of the Edwinish Economy, and every member of the Gnetry upwards is likely to own a slave. It is not an issue looked upon with any controversy, and in fact, the Royal Edwinish Slaving Company, a trade business that negotiates slaves from Kahun and Maze, was given a Royal Charter by the previous Edwinish monarch to be the country's official slaving company for the next 1000 years, such is the need for cheap labour. Slaves have no wealth, and no power.

Honour

Honour is a concept that is the norm for only three levels of Edwinish Society, Gentry, Nobility and Royalty. The Clergy have no 'Honour' as such because they are humbled before the eyes of Midas. Honour is an idea that makes those three classes act with chivalry towards each other, and politely. It leads them to 'honourable' acts, which usually correspond with working against crime, attending Church, avoiding insulting people, and defending the honour of others. If one member of those three classes offends another, they may be forced to duel, to 'satisfy' the offended party's honour.

Duels

Duels are as commonplace amongst the Gentry, Nobility and Royalty as insults, as both correspnd each other in frequency, given that insulting another is a dishonourable act. Duels are between two people, though truels, between three people, are possible. Each combatant must have a 'second', a person that stands by to make sure no cheating or foul play occurs while duelling. When a person challenges a duel to defend their honour, the common practice is to throw a glove or gauntlet on the ground in front of the other duellist, who then picks it up, and slaps it across the challnger's face, signalling they accept. Leaving the glove means the duellist declines, and thus loses their honour, only to be regained if they accept at a later time.

With the duel agreed of, the duellist that was challenged, NOT the challenger, picks the weapon they will be using, form bare fists to longswords to bows. They will also agree upon when the duel is won. There are three 'levels' of seriousness when this is concerned.
1. First Blood. The duel is over when one person draws the other's blood, thus winning.
2. Knock Out. The duel is over when one person is too tired, or unconscious to continue.
3. To the Death. The duel is over with the death of one combatant.

The duel usually ends any dispute between the parties involved. However, if the offended party lost, and is still alive, they have not defended their honour, and thus are shamed, and not worthy to duel again.
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"Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral, or fattening." - Murphy's Law