Atinan
The Atinan people are a deeply religious and ancestrally diverse ethnicity. While Atina is known for being the land of the aasimar, many other kinds of people live there.
Naming Traditions
Other names
Naming convention is structured by {personal name} {family name} {location name}.
Personal names are first chosen by the family in a grand festival during the first sundown after the birth of the child. This name is usually taken from a dead ancestor to honor them and help cement the familial memory. Whenever a person achieves a significant spiritual achievement, such as reaching adulthood or completing a stage in the path of self actualization, is often celebrated by that person adding to their personal name.
A family name is passed down the maternal line, for only they can bestow life.
A location name is the name of where the person was born, usually the nearest monastery or the community.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Atinans learn Common and, if they pursue a life in a monastery, Modern Celestial.
Culture and cultural heritage
Atinan culture is shaped heavily by the spiritual teachings of the Celestial pantheon and the demiurges. There are deep ties to older cults of the Cyclical pantheon and the Spirit pantheon as well, often incorporating teachings from these other faiths into their own. Atina has little history in conquest or invasion, nor do they welcome outsiders into their borders. This has given Atinans a distinctly isolated cultural development compared to the rest of the United Halla Alliance.
Aasimar, who reincarnate within Atinan sacred sites, enter the world with wisdom bestowed upon them by the Celestial gods. These aasimar often shape the cultural direction of Atina with new messages and leanings in their freshly reincarnated world perspective, and the Atinans will return the favor by rounding out their education.
Shared customary codes and values
Atinans are a deeply religious and spiritual people. For an Atinan, their faith is their avenue for understanding their place in the cosmos. While Brasi may hold the seats of the organized churches, Atinans follow a more personal spiritual path under the guidance of smaller monasteries.
Atinans value piety and compassion, as laid out by the principles of the Celestial pantheon. It is virtually unheard of for an Atinan to not honor and respect the celestial gods. Hospitality is core of Atinan lifestyle as well -- there are virtually no inns. Instead, travelers are expected to find a kind family and humbly request a room to rest and food to eat in exchange for news, services, or goods.
Common Etiquette rules
Atinans are high context culture, according to On the Nature of Culture. They value ritual, societal, and hospitality traditions. This makes it easy to violate a social rule and commit a rude social blunder for an outsider. Most Atinans look down upon outsiders and their crude ways, but will never articulate it.
Common Dress code
In general, Atinans have three classifications of dress: casual, formal, and ceremonial. Casual clothing is usually cotton or linen with silk thread embroidery and has practicality in mind. Formal dress is usually robes or tunics of silk from their silkworms. Ceremonial is expensive and usually passed down family lines -- silk with delicate embroidery, sewn in beads, and vibrant colors.
Art & Architecture
Atinans have a long history of dance expression. Their dancing is usually performative, with central dancers coordinating in a group. Thin veils are used as props and most dance is held with an upright posture. In festivals and celebrations, more free-form dance is acceptable.
Atinans do not have a significant history of paint (other than painted silks), but their visual art history is very statuesque. Atinan marble is not the highest quality in hte United Halla Alliance, but it is used in all monastery construction and has a distinct pink hue. Statues of spiritual leaders, guides, demiurges , and aasimar are found in the monasteries. The monasteries themselves are broad marble and limestone structures full of carved murals.
The Atinan home is usually a building with a central courtyard that features a garden and an ever burning sacred hearth, either magically maintained (if the family is wealthy) or a simple but constantly fed flame.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Atinan births are highly celebrated. When a child is born, there is a large party celebrating the new life in the community. The infant is shown to their neighbors and their name is chosen that evening. The night will proceed (often without the exhausted parents) with feasts, dances, and celebrations.
The next morning, the infant will be brought to a nearby monastery and be anointed by a monk. This welcomes them into the spiritual path as laid out by the gods.
Coming of Age Rites
When a child is halfway through their pubescent years, they will have a celebration of growth in the local monastery. This celebration acknowledges the moral development of the child, their teachings, and welcomes them into the community as a morally mature adult and the first steps of spiritual growth. Community members will give the young adult gifts to celebrate and a large feast ends the event.
Funerary and Memorial customs
Like the majority of the United Halla Alliance, death rites are performed within a day of death. Due to the ever-present fear of undeath, the body will be cremated by a special order of monks. It is customary to keep the body from the family at this time -- the monks do not want the memory of the deceased's life to be marred by their corpse. For the next week, the immediate family will fall into mourning and process their grief in their homes. Neighbors will bring food, goods, and help take care of the home for them so the family can focus on adding the deceased to their familial altar by carving their effigy into a totem.
Common Taboos
Undead are loathed in Atina and anyone practicing in magic connected to the undead are shunned and exiled. In addition, the Dæmonic court, Fae court, and Primeval court are shunned as well.
The Aži court is a controversial topic. There are rumors that a dragon lives within Atina, but no one is sure who or where. Many children hear stories of the dragons and are entranced by it, and the latest generation tend to be curious of them. Older generations are far more wary.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Atinans find beauty in simplicity. Healthy, unadorned, and carefully groomed styles are in favor. It is common for non-monks to grow their hair long, often uncut (only trimmed if needed), and braided. When someone takes on monastic vows, paladin oaths, or clerical virtues, they often shave their hair to signify the severity of their word.
Gender Ideals
Most Atinans don't hold much value in strict gender roles, but older generations remember the more traditional roles that Atinans have idealized in the past. Masculinity has traditionally been associated with decisiveness, stoicism, leadership, and action. Femininity has traditionally been associated with compassion, creativity, intelligence, and gentleness.
Courtship Ideals
Atinans will express their interest in another with a hand-carved wooden bracelet to be worn on the right arm. When a wedding ceremony is completed, an accompanying left bracelet is exchanged to complete the courtship. This symbolizes dedicating their body (with the first bracelet) and spirit (with the second) to each other in hopes that Yayisa will write their love into the tome of life and have their souls be reunited in their next lives. This is a very serious courtship process.
Relationship Ideals
Atinans are strictly monogamous and firmly believe in marital union for life. If one partner dies before the other, it is considered romantically tragic for the surviving partner to stay unwed until their own death.
There are no gender combinations that are taboo or frowned upon, nor are there any particularly strong gender roles enforced in the relationship.
Diverged ethnicities
Related Organizations
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