Bread Customs
They're calling it a massacre. Ess Réka opened her abode, shared grains and mead. She offered them Bread Customs. To kill them... well, the Maker will never forgive her... She will burn in the Void for what she's done.The Laws of Hospitality and Protection, often short-handed as Bread Customs, is an ancient and sacred tradition in Nevarra and in some city-states of the western Free Marches. When a guest is offered food and drink off the host's table and within the host's lands, Bread Customs is considered to be invoked. Once invoked, neither the guest nor host can harm one another for the length of the guest's stay. Bread Customs is a tradition shared amongst commoners and nobility alike, and the breaking of these customs is considered an incredibly heinous social faux-pas and a sign that you are unworthy of trust.
Components and tools
Often, Bread Customs is established by one party serving bread and fermented cabbage, otherwise known as sauerkraut, to the other.
In the courts and halls of the rich, one can traditionally show that they are denying guest right by baring a sword or staff over their knees.
Observance
To violate these customs is to break a sacred covenant that is believed to invoke the wrath of the Maker. Even though a highwayman or bandit may ambush, rob, and kill a person, they'd give serious pause before considering doing so after inviting their target into their own home. Such an act could easily cause a revolt against them, lead by their own criminal peers.
It has even been observed that some Dalish outsiders who have been invited into the halls of Nevarrans have taken this custom seriously despite worshipping their own pantheon, perhaps indicating some sort of schism amongst their kind when compared to those forest-dwellers in other parts of the world.
While Nevarrans treat this custom as sacred, none take it as seriously as northern Nevarrans. This is because the further north you go, the more it snows and thus the denial of food and shelter during winter usually means death.
The only exception to this custom is already captured hostages — usually in times of conflict — as they are not considered guests despite being provided food, water, and shelter.
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