Imperials
Citizens of the Iron Empire, the Imperials are subject to the Empress's Law. With the expansion of the Iron Empire throughout the continent of Ceralus, the Imperials have brought a swathe of different cultures and ethnicities into their hegemony. While incompatible traditions and religions were stamped out by the Imperial Bureaucracy, there are many folk traditions and customs that still linger and spread through the borders of the Iron Empire, creating a melting pot from which tracing the origin of any one element of culture becomes difficult.
Naming Traditions
Other names
The Imperials often have names that are Latinate mixed with other real world cultures, rather than a single culture. This represents their reach and the fact that the Old Iron Empire stretched across the Shimmering Sea.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Irontongue, with High and Low dialects.
Shared customary codes and values
All citizens of the Iron Empire are subject to the Empress's Law which serves as the legal code for every province. Though not 'recognized' as having any official weight by the Empress, there are two other works that compose the 'canon' of the Iron Empire.
The first is a work of poetry, that was supposedly composed following a discussion with the Empress shortly after her coronation by the poet, Aran the Scribe. The poem, titled The Forging of Steel consists of various treatises on how the people of the Iron Empire should live their lives to become as strong as Steel, ascribing the words and instructions to the Empress. In it, there are such values as "the well-being of the State is the well-being of all. One should not put their own selfish wants above the good of others," "It is the responsibility of all to ensure the Empress's Law is upheld," "Those who seek to pervert the Empress's Law are no better than those who break it," and "The Empress keeps the Storms back, so loyalty to her is a duty of all."
The second is a work that has inspired the closest thing the Iron Empire has to a state religion. The Records of Storms details the times that the Wyrdwinds grew strong enough to allow entire hosts of Mistwalkers to cross into Terraneus, with the last entry being the Great Storm that nearly destroyed the Iron Empire and led to the rise of the Empress. Though ostensibly simply a record of past events, scholars of the Imperial Scriptorium have studied this text and realized that it had been revised several times, with at least three distinct writing styles being identified. The most recent (and the one who composed the entire entry of the Great Storm) of these voices added elements of a spiritual or theological bent, creating a narrative where there would be one final Storm to end all Storms, but that there would arise one who would ward Terraneus against the Mistwalkers forevermore. Older entries have suffered clear rewriting from this author and the scribes are unsure of how much of the original was lost.
The book has no ascribed author, though the Empress herself has denounced both those who interpret her as the one to end the Storms (the Steel Wind) and those who claim that the Great Storm prophesized is still to arrive and that the one who will stop it has not yet revealed themselves (the Stormwatchers). Most Imperials do not regard The Record of Storms as anything but a historical text from before the days of the Empress, despite the fervent preachers of both the Steel Wind and the Stormwatchers.
Imperials have known stability and the rule of law for generations and have grown to appreciate the sense of familiarity that the structure and order of the Empire brings them. They value those who are disciplined and can put aside their own feelings for the good of others.
Common Etiquette rules
The culture of the Iron Empire tends to value personal space and formality in public. While children and close family members may embrace or touch in public, it is generally seen as impolite to impose on another's space. One would not for instance hug or shake hands upon meeting someone but rather bow. Though none are exempt from the law, there are clear classes within the Iron Empire and it is expected that one shows proper respect when interacting with someone of a higher social rank than you or to face punishment.
Common Dress code
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
The Empress is the standard by which the Imperials judge beauty. Culturally, they value contrasting hair color and skin tones, though the most beautiful is the dark hair-pale skin, ala their Empress. However, the Imperials seem to have a cultural fascination with eyes, enjoying striking eye colors and drawing attention to their eyes through makeup, worn by both men and women especially among the aristocracy. Often, other parts of the face are obscured or hidden to draw attention to the eyes, such as using a veil for your nose and mouth that compliments your eye color or wearing your hair in such a way to frame the eyes.
Outside of these specifics, different regions of the Iron Empire retain their ideals from before their integration. The people of Scarmouth, for instance, tend to idealize the physically strong and tall of both sexes and tend to hold up the darker skins like those of the Firelanders or the people of Sun and River, from whom many in the hot humid port city are descended. The people of Citadel tend to prefer more slender builds for both, and prioritize how well a person can groom themselves over any natural physical traits. In regions where the Iron Legion is frequently deployed, such as the cities near the Bloody Plains, facial hair is rarely an attractive trait among men, for the traditions of the Legionnaires going clean shaven extends to before the Empress's reign, derived from health regulations imposed on the Legions centuries ago.
Gender Ideals
Among Imperials, the ideal aristocratic man is a military officer and the ideal aristocratic woman is a scribe, though there are no iron-clad rules for what gender may serve in what role under the Empress's Law. The ideal comes from the fate of the standard child of those executed for crimes, where far more of the male children are sent to be trained in the Legions and far more of the female children are sent to the Scriptorium. Families are expected to work and serve the Iron Empire. Whether it is the man who does so or the woman matters little. Often times, the women will be the ones who provide the early teaching of their children but when the child has learned to, at the very least, be able to read and write the opening of the Empress's Law (as is expected to be done by the age of ten), then the father is expected to assist in completing the education of their child as well.
Courtship Ideals
Imperial marriage is on the surface very straightforward but also with several nuances. When two people wish to join in marriage, it must be with the approval of both sets of parents. The two prospects are expected to spend one year between the marriage is proposed before the contract is signed. While at the start, the two merely meet during public events and at family gatherings, by the end of the year, they are expected to be living together, choosing to either reside in one of the parents' houses or switching between both, so long as they are together. If at the end of the year, the relationship has not fallen apart, then a Scribe will be brought forth with a marriage contract for all to sign.
During the year the couple is getting to know one another, they and their parents are expected to be putting aside a portion of their earnings that year to pay for the fees for the Scribe as well as to provide the newly wedded couple a stipend for the early days of their marriage. What's more, with the Empress's Law, a portion of the taxes collected over the year from the families is returned to them to match the amount gathered for this stipend.
Should the marriage fall through, the amount that is put aside is claimed by the Iron Empire (in part to subsidize the return made to successful newly weds).
Relationship Ideals
The ideal relationship for the Imperials is based on the idea of two partners raising the next generation of Imperials, but aside from that, especially among the aristocracy, there is little that is expected. Part of the reason for the year long courtship is to ensure that partners can tolerate one another, regardless of if they love one another. Divorce is not frequent but it is granted far more frequently either before a couple has children or after the child has reached the age of fifteen, at which point, the Iron Empire expects them to have received sufficient teaching from their parents to be able to make do.
The law does not favor either the husband or the wife in a marriage. Should either be found guilty of abuse against the other, the punishments can be quite severe. Extramarital affairs are not encouraged within the Forging of Steel but there are surprisingly few rules regarding them in the Empress's Law. The aristocracy often will have consorts and concubines outside of their marriage, but most are discrete to avoid being seen as undisciplined.
Diverged ethnicities
Related Organizations
