Ouvurisyans

Ouvurisyans are an ethnicity that originates from northern Settan in the area where Ouvuran Empire lies today. They developed in the early first century PG, when people of this terrain have started to join in common settlements which ignored racial differences and were willing to grow in prosperity in peace with people of their land. Through time they became influenced by dwarven kingdoms and changed their culture. A few centuries later the Empire has been created and the culture of ouvurisyans started to travel through the world, sharing their customs and language, which soon became the most important in the whole Ferdlan.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The language of ouvurisyans is known as Ouvuran and because of the variety of ouvurisyan society, it developed numerous dialects. The most important one in the south of the Ouvuran Empire, the dialect is known as Devuran, it has been influenced by old Dwarven dialects. The north and middle of the Empire are filled with the most different dialects of which the most important is the orc-influenced one. Eastern Ouvuran is influenced by gubaran- and human-influenced dialect. One of the most recognized dialects is the goblin dialect of Ouvuran, which is the origin of loads of jokes about the dialect.

Shared customary codes and values

Most common values to the ouvurisyans:

1. Survival - north has been known as the place of harsh climate and dangerous creatures. First civilizations that grew there didn't die out because of wars. They were destroyed by the wilderness of the north. Each and every one of them. Once powerful and prospering countries that used riches of northern lands.
2. Success - people of the Ouvuran Empire learned that success is what defines a person. It brings possibilities. It brings funds, friends, abilities, knowledge, and opportunities. It is a factor that builds a future.
3. Peace - Ouvurisyans learned through the achievements of the Ouvuran Empire that a way to achieve what is needed does not require conflict and peace helps to develop better. It is important for most Ouvurisyans that they feel peaceful in their day-to-day life.

Common Dress code

Women - Ouvurisyan women like to dress in dresses and skirts, mostly in shades of grey and green. When the weather is cold women wear slim leather shirts and trousers (often referred to as Shefka) that are heated beneath with sheep fur. The traditional dress, Kazuhka, is a light-grey dress reaching below knees with a little longer dark-green layer underneath. It has a wide belt made of dark-green cloth fastened with a loop made out of an animal bone. The top of the dress has a narrow gap starting right below the neck and then dividing into two gaps that end on the belt right above the hips. The dress does not have sleeves, instead, it has two dark-green ribbons coming out of where sleeves should start and attached to wrists.
Men - Ouvurisyan men absolutely love shirts and more muscular ones often keep them open. When the weather is cold men wear thick, leather vests that are heated with sheep fur underneath. The traditional clothing of men is known as Mawmoth and consists of slim trousers that end a bit above ankles. It consists also of a furry, green colored shirt with wooden buttons and a warm hat with ear covers. Such hat is known as Pogrom.

Art & Architecture

Ouvurisyan art had its beginnings in the representation of hunts and tundra landscapes. First of those pieces of art have decorated halls of cities' rulers and traveled higher and higher in the Empire's hierarchy as those paintings have been very often gifted as a tribute. Of the most popular painters, thats' works decorate now the Empiric Palace, are: Sokolov, Pavlov, and Nikoleva. Artists of a different sort, sculptors and architects, also enjoyed showing hunt and Venatia, the demigoddess of the hunt. The architecture of the Ouvuran Empire is overloaded with an amount of silvery-grey and dark-green. Colors of tundra and forests.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Rite of the Hunt - every first day of each month in each major settlement big hunt is organized. Any citizen can partake in this event and compete against other hunters. Hunters have one day to kill the best prey and then bring it to the altar of Venatia. When the prey is brought it is sacrificed to the demigoddess to gain her favor for the next month. It is thought that the bigger the prey the luckier a person will be for the next month. The only rule that is applied to this rite is that a mivak cannot be killed during this hunt.
Day of mivak - 13th of malar is considered among Ouvurisyans as the first day of winter. It is the day when mivaks start to come out of tunnels of the Great Glacier to welcome the freezing air of harsh northern winter. On this day the empiric hunt is being held with the goal of hunting down a mivak. If that happens its unique forehead bone is later attached to the empiric throne.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

Before a baby is born it is a duty of a father to hunt an animal, which skull later will lie in the child's room, and from its bone make an arrow tip that will later be attached to a necklace for a child. Anyone that wears that kind of necklace is considered a part of Ouvurisyan society. Such necklace is known under a name of Sabv.

Coming of Age Rites

When Ouvrurisyan comes of age they are sent out for their first hunt with nothing but food for a day. They have to come back with their first prey. After they do so, they have to attach a claw of this animal to their Sabv.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Graveyards are mostly uncommon in the ouvurisyan society, only settlements located near to Settan and southern Howleran might have them. Traditionally a corpse of a person is left deep in the woods, to become part of nature for eternity. It is the role of the closest relative to take them out to the woods. A place where a corpse is laid is often marked with a staff on which a Sabv of the dead is attached.

Common Taboos

Emperor Magaskan - an ouvurisyan man, which took control of the Empire by poisoning the current emperor and then ruled over the land with a brutal hand. He forced the people of Ouvur to join the army and then marched at Dwarven Kingdoms. He completely devastated the whole Kingdom of Degar, destroying great cities and beautiful halls, while also murdering a multitude of citizens.

Major organizations

Ouvuran Empire