Mythic Vistas: SpirosBlaak - Property Is Theft!

The customs, beliefs, and habits of the duchies usually differ from one to the next. This chapter presents some points of note. The new races
mentioned within this chapter are fully detailed in Chapter Seven: Races.
Dress
Commoners and tradesmen wear durable and practical clothing to
suit their responsibilities. Few can afford to adorn themselves in the
silks, hoses, and fine gowns of the wealthy or the nobility, nor do
they wish to. Simplicity of dress is the norm, but there are obvious
exceptions. Faedians, for instance, wear almost nothing, and they are
unashamed of nudity, oen causing scandals whenever a Faedian
visits a “civilized” community. Furthermore, the orcs of the Roaming
Plains traditionally dress in the skins of their kills, whereas the
dwarves of Nolmedron consider light armor to be casual wear.
Education
Very few advanced schools or colleges exist for the lower social
classes, except in Askalan, where the opposite is true. However,
a typical urbanite of the Archduchy can aend community
schools, where he learns reading and some arithmetic. Tradesmen,
entertainers, and other professions requiring records or legers
generally have a greater understanding of these maers due to the
nature of their professions.
Well-to-do commoners, on the other hand, possess a fair
understanding of leers, intermediate mathematics are more familiar,
and some rudimentary principles of science are broached. Still, most
schooling at this social level is informal, learned from one’s family or
by paying a nearby tradesman to tutor children during his spare time.
The wealthy and noble classes, however, may avail themselves
of the best academies and private tutors money can buy. Members
of the upper class usually speak many tongues and know advanced
mathematics, scientific elements and theories, philosophy, religion,
and history. They also generally know something about other
cultures, although they may not always be open-minded about them.
Laws
The rulers of each duchy set laws within their dominions. The
Archduke or Archduchess only forces implementation of the most
widely applicable regulations. Although most such regional decrees
are similar in design and application to those of their neighbors, the
finer points, such as sentencing, vary widely. There are, however,
several laws enforced by just one or a few duchies that stand out from
most others. For example, only Vas places restrictions on arcane magic.
No maer where in the Archduchy one goes, however, it is clear
centuries of conflict hardened its citizens against criminals and the
downtrodden, for the citizenry heartily believes the law requires
harsh justice to maintain order. Therefore, the is oen punishable
by mutilation, murder with execution, and so on. Despite this hard
stance on crime, it remains as prevalent in the Archduchy today as
ever it did.
Customs and Society
Another legal commonality throughout the Archduchy (with a
few exceptions) is the treatment of kavbroed and other non-humans
as second-class citizens (at best) in the eyes of the law. Even when
the actual leer of the law does not show them disfavor, their fellow
citizens and agents of the law, including the magistrates and courts,
still discriminate against them and treat them poorly. Kavraen, on the
other hand, are an entirely different maer: a sweeping law granting
all citizens the right to execute kavraen on sight. The few kavraen
existing in the cities of man do so illegally, and they are usually ousted
by their inability to control their shapechanging during full moons, an
ability the kavbroed have long mastered.
Superstitions
Superstitions are common in any society, and each race, community,
and social class in the Archduchy has its own. In general, what
separates superstition from religion and magic is the fact that
superstitious beliefs, while widely and firmly held, are generally
inaccurate, sometimes dangerously so.
Two such beliefs that are common to much of the population of
the Archduchy are the Day of Hallowing Exemption and the power
of “red silver.” (For an example of a superstition that is only partially
inaccurate, see the practice of blood-pricking in the description of
Kavbroed on page 70.)
The Day of Hallowing Exemption
On this Archduchy-wide holy day (see page 21) the human
population of SpirosBlaak believe that the powers of the kav are
held in check by the sacred energies that suffuse the land. The exact
nature of this restriction on lycanthropes is debatable: in Hiltaenos
it is believed that a kav’s bite doesn’t transmit lycanthropy on the
Day of Hallowing, while in SpirosBlaak itself they believe that
weres are unable to change form on that day. Unfortunately for both
kav and human, the isolated counter-examples reported following
an unsuccessful or tragic Hallowing Hunt are unable to dent the
common folk’s belief in the Exemption.
Red Silver
The ability of silver to provide protection from lycanthropes is well
known in the Archduchy, but unfortunately silver is too expensive for
most commoners to be able to avail themselves of its protection. Thus
many humans, goblins, halflings, and half-elves make it a general
practice to carry on their persons at all times an amulet made of
argentum (an alloy of copper and silver also called “red silver” for its
color; see Money, page 118), a weapon plated with the alloy, or at the
very least an argentum coin or two. Upon the birth of a baby in the
Archduchy, well-wishers oen present to the parents argentum coins
pierced and strung on cords to be placed around the child’s neck, at