Easterners

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Feminine names tend to end in soft sounds, like "-eh", "-de", or "-an."

Masculine names

Masculine names tend to end in hard or abrupt sounds, like "-eq", "-ir", or "-iz."

Unisex names

There is quite a bit of variation in names, and the intentional naming of a male or female child with a name usually used for the opposite gender is not uncommon. These people usually inhabit more of the grey areas between the binary genders, and are usually given to children parents believe to be unique or special.

Family names

Eastern family names are not based off of a description of what the family does as they are for some cultures, but more often than not are the names of significant ancestors used to identify their lineage. Examples of family names are things like "Bakashi" or "Taghavi." A family name will very often be created by adding an "-i" to the end of an ancestor's name, as it was done with the names Bakash and Taghav in the names above. However, degrees of variation exist, especially if the ancestor the family name takes after is especially revered.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Easterners speak a dialect of common that perhaps deviates most dramatically between all the human dialects. Opting for an abjad writing system, Eastern is a more flowing and slurred-sounding version of common, even the sharper sounds in the language being soft in comparison to other common dialects.

Culture and cultural heritage

It is said that the culture of the Easterners is deeply rooted in that of ancient humans who migrated south from the Uuliate. The Uuliate now being a wasteland, there is sparse material evidence to prove such claims, but many Easterners attribute their oldest traditions to the first of the humans to migrate south.

There are two main things that sit at the centre of the Easterner's culture: Family and religion. Ancestor worship is not practiced in the East, but it is almost something adjacent. This manifests in things like a loyalty to one's family being extremely important, and to break away from your family is seen as a sign of disgrace, and will sometimes even result in a family member being disowned because of it. This fosters large, close families and very complex and old family traditions.

Religion is observed second to family, and while still extremely important, does not hold as dire consequences when not observed so fervently on a personal level. The Easterners mainly worship the prophetical figure Daiha, who supposedly died during Invention in a civil war securing the current ruling lineage of the East. Her worship is observed in both devout prayer and every day life, followers trying to do things with the good of their family and kingdom in the forefront of their minds.

Shared customary codes and values

The values and expectations of a person tend to be more specific to their families than the culture as a whole, but there are certain ideals that tend to be pretty wide spread across all Easterners. Relating to the more specific nature of shared values, being true to and respecting ones family is seen as one of the utmost important things. Certain virtues like creativity and passion for ones craft are also seen as very respectable, and are often sought after or encouraged in children.

Common Etiquette rules

Being physically well-kept is very important in social situations and polite company. This leads to Easterners bathing often and taking especially good care of their hair. Somewhat within gender roles, it is seen as polite to a certain extent for men to be very open and to approach strangers, while it's polite for women to keep to themselves and only respond once approached first.

Common Dress code

Dress is very dependent on ones role or position, but there are certain elements of style that are more overarching. Heavy, draping fabrics of solid colours and simple designs are generally sought after in garments, while over-garments tend to be more along the lines of sheer or light fabrics with more complicated designs and more soft or metallic colours. When outside, it is common for one to cover ones hair in a head-wrap or hat, and in lieu of that, the hair is tied back or pushed out of the face. For both genders, dark makeup is also commonly worn around the eyes to accentuate them.

In work environments, it is more common for men to wear longer, heavier, and more flowing garments. This means that ambassadors and merchants will often be seen wearing long, colourful robes over their simple linen shirts and pants. Because these sorts of people are most commonly seen by people of other cultures, this has made most foreign peoples' ideas of Eastern dress based on these types of heavy robes. More common for people working as soldiers and servants or manual laborers, which is mainly women, it is more common to see more closely fitting and hardier garments of simpler greys and whites. These are commonly accentuated with lighter, more colourful outer-garments. For both genders, warm-coloured metal jewelry made of gold, bronze, or brass is very common.

Art & Architecture

Art and architecture share some very base values, but take some very major departures when it comes to colour. Sharp, defined edges are valued in both art and architecture. This results in a lot of repeating, geometric designs and sharp corners or defined curves being used in both. But when it comes to architecture, very simple, single colours are favoured. When it comes to art, on the other hand, bold, bright colours are favoured. This results in very rich pigments being used in paintings, murals, and clothing. One other place where art and architecture do intersect are with metallic accents, which are widely used in clothing, artwork, and masonry.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Funerals are extremely important within families, and while each family will have different traditions when it comes to entombing their dead, it is common to have a tomb or mausoleum where their family and ancestors are interned. Among the upper classes, tombs can be extensive and opulent, while lower class families will bury or burn their dead in whatever way they can access while having a small cenotaph near or in their home. Dead may be kept in coffins or cremated and kept in urns, but they will always be housed together and kept very carefully.

Common Taboos

It is an extreme taboo to forsake one's family, and while these people are often happy to live far away from their homeland, if they return they will be looked at very unfavourably by their whole community. Inter-family relations can also be a particularly prickly subject, and said politics are most often encountered when people wish to marry outside of their class or marry someone from another culture.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Some very common beauty ideals for Easterners are long, thick, and well kept hair, as well as reddish skin. Easterner's skin tends to be quite tan and reddish-brown, but in older eras it used to be seen as a sign of the elite to paint one's skin with a cinnabar-based paint that would give the skin a brilliant red appearance. Because of this, tiefling with particularly bright red skin are also seen as very beautiful.

Gender Ideals

Gender roles are somewhat held back by generations of very strict roles. In a general sense, many social and outward interactions were delegated to men, while more utilitarian roles were mostly fulfilled by women. This meant figure heads, ambassadors, and entertainers were almost always male, while soldiers and servants were stereotypically female. This was not always so strict, however, and there are plenty of historical examples of men and women stepping over boundaries into roles more commonly filled by their counterparts. This was not done entirely brazenly however, and usually lead to people presenting more male or female when in roles stereotypically assigned to different genders. This has rippled into modern society, with this transgressing of traditional roles becoming more common as the years go by. It has also had impacts on other parts of the culture, like the dress uniforms for soldiers of any gender being long, draping robes and dresses to the almost universal application of facial hair to any portrayal of a bard or entertainer in stage play.

Courtship Ideals

Courtship, following the pattern of men being more social, is often instigated by men. This is often seen by people in other cultures as the men being particularly pushy, but most often that is not the case. Sometimes, however, women are not content to wait for a particular person of interest to approach them first, and they will make the first move. Relationships that begin this way are often seen as having "strong roots" and will last long.

Relationship Ideals

Interestingly, gender ideals tend to melt away the more intimate a relationship becomes. In a family, gendered ideals will still tend to hold when it comes to what role each person fulfills--Men often being the face of the household while women actually handle all of the books and upkeep. But within relationships themselves, it is seen as a sign of intimacy for these ideals to be shed and, for example, women to be more openly social with their partners and men to be more willing to take up the more utilitarian tasks. This is often seen through women gushing to and men cooking for their partners as signs of affection.

Major organizations

Easterners live south of the Spires and dwor country in one of the largest human kingdoms on the continent. The East, as it is often and simply referred to as, is home to some of the most ornate temples and advanced universities that can be found. Despite having some reservations about outsiders, their central location and rich textile and spice markets have also made them the biggest trade hub in the south.

Encompassed species

• Human