Sweruese

"What's 'inhospitable' to you is a place where we can be free." 

— Liso Nure, Sweruese herdsman

"Yeah, they'll give you some speech about how it's free for them to live there, but hell man. It's also a free to die place. Ask how many kids make it past the age of twelve." 

— Brianne Wredfjord, Swerue ranger

Naming Traditions

Family names

Most family names are only taken at the level of the parents, using the first two initials of their personal names. For example, if the parents are named Fris and Erdo, then the last name of the family would be either Frer or Erfr. The decision as to which one would be best is seeing what other families are currently in the tribe as it's good luck to have names starting in as many different letters as possible.

Other names

Names for the Sweruese are not male/female/unisex. For many people, names are given with letters or sounds similar to the elements that a person is born into, the elements are person is expected to obtain in their life, or even wishes of elements to be given to them. Names need to be a combination of two things, just as family names are a combination of two people. 
Taking the example from earlier, let's look closer at Fris and Erdo. 

• Fris is a combination of "friszon," a word for lightly falling snow, and "isson," a word for weak sunlight. Fris was born during a time of light snow and weak sunlight. 
• Erdo is a combination of "weer," a word meaning "a peaceful future" and "doewsa," a word meaning "strong ice winds." Erdo was given a future name, a wish for a peaceful future, which was paired with the weather during their birth. 

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The major language spoken by the Sweruese is Swer, with each group having some dialect words or accents. Most Sweruese that have left the mountains to live in Treford have picked up Modified English easily enough that Sweruese are seen as gifted with languages.

Shared customary codes and values

The willingness to work hard, season after season, and to keep surviving in harsh conditions, are some of their shared values.

Average technological level

"By depending on our own hands and brains to make what we need, we will be free from dependence on others, on materials we cannot make."

— Siza, one of the leaders 

Due to their close proximity to nations that have advanced further along with technology, the Sweruese know of technology, but they don't use it, saying that if they didn't create the thing themselves, then they don't need to be using it.

Common Etiquette rules

The most basic piece of etiquette is help others when you can since they'll be the ones to help you later. Other than that, nobody cares if a person belches/farts while eating, about greeting another person, or even letting the leader go first.

Common Dress code

Dress is made for people to be warm when needed, cool when needed, and to move about how they need (crossing ravines, hiking, hunting, etc.). There really is no "dress code" other than "Don't steal someone else's warmth."

Art & Architecture

There is one area where the Sweruese build permanent houses, and that's in the middle of the mountain crater. However, while this area is a beautiful lake in summer months, during spring there are the perils of flash flooding, areas that act like quicksand, and animals that are hungry enough to attack. In fall the mud turns toxic due to enough chemical breakdown, and in winter the area is bare, with nothing around to live on. 
The houses built here have sharp A-frame roofs and are resting on the top of stilts to keep them above the water levels in summer. When the groups reunite in this area, many people spend the first few days cleaning out the houses and or fishing. This is the easiest time, and for many, it's perfect to learn how to swim or find someone from a different group to pair with.
Summer art and Not-Summer art differs in appearance and material. Summer art is mostly painted, and at the bottom of the lake there are clays which were mixed by the waters swirling in. Children find the colors and deliver them to artists, hoping that their wishes will be painted. Non-summer art tends to be wood or bone carvings as these are light enough to carry with people and can be worked on little by little. One artist, Roju, has dedicated her art to being a mixture of summer and not-summer; she will spend her non-summer time carving bones and then paint them during the summer.

Funerary and Memorial customs

When a Sweruese person dies, they are left above ground and near the base of a tree (if one is nearby). It's seen as a person's final duty to the world to give back when their entire life was taking from. 
For the next few days they are talked about in the group as if they were still there and alive, but out of earshot. Then, when everyone has had the chance to show how they will miss the person, the tense changes to the past to show they are no longer living with their group.

Common Taboos

There is pretty much one big taboo among the Sweruese. A person must never steal food or equipment from the group. If a person is caught stealing, they branded on their face (a mark on each cheek) so that everyone else can see them as the stealer they are. In addition, they are thrown out of the group and told to survive on their own. For most of the history, these people have stayed on their own and died on their own; however, in recent years (and during a time when hunting was particularly hard), there were more people caught stealing food, enough so that when they met up with other food stealers, they decided to make their own group.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Beauty ideals in the Sweruese aren't the same as beauty ideals in the cultures that live nearby. The thought of beauty is that there is beauty in everything; how ice crystals shine after hard winds, how the clouds look when a storm is on the horizon, and even in the peacefulness of the world when it's mid-night and no one else is awake. 
Because of this, people will say that "I see [person's] beauty, but I want a different type of beauty." if they are not interesting in pairing up with a person. If they are interested, the phrase is "I see your beauty, and it has captured me."

Gender Ideals

With the low numbers of people in each group of Sweruese, jobs are given and taken according to who can handle them best, with no preference to age or gender.

Courtship Ideals

A courtship is when two people are tied together in a relationship. Because two is a lucky number, while there have been relationships with three or more people tied together in the past (and will likely have some more in the future), when those pop up the leaders of the group make sure to loudly say that "these two people are tied" and "these two people are tied," using a third person in both ceremonies. If there is an even number of people in the relationship, those are easier to tie together. 
A person is deemed ready for courting when they have contributed enough food to the group in which everyone can eat for one day. Smart people looking to gain courtship rights will enlist friends to help them gather food, or will gather food that is easy to preserve. Both people must have courtship rights to begin seeing each other.

Relationship Ideals

A relationship is between two people, and the ideal is to have a pair that is understanding of each other and who supports their partner in their weak spots. 
In most cases, if a couple is having an argument, other group members will not intervene. However, if threats turn to physical violence, the couple's relationship is broken and cannot be made again. (This is a rare occurrence, and at least one time in the recent past, the couple left their group and entered another group as a tied pair. There, they untied about three to four years later and each of them entered a tie with another person.