Ilyamen Culture

[Kender Bard]

An In-Depth Look At
Ilyamen

Temperament and Trending Traits
    When your home is the world’s biggest market, what personalities thrive and grow? The competitive. Although there is a more than just mercantile jobs available to the people, all of Ilyamen’s citizens have the merchant attitude—“How does this benefit me?” Though people have friends and family, solidarity doesn’t come easily to the people of Ilyamen. Unlike Ronduin or Talen’sul, little exists to bring neighbors together and much stands in their way of forming close bonds. Real estate in the expansive market district is always in high demand and bitter feuds often arise when trying to procure an empty shop to set up business. Actual fights break out on street level over prime intersections on well traversed streets. In the shadier parts of town, a street vendor who steps on too many toes may become the recipient of threats and violence.
   
This aggression has a tendency to carry out of the workplace and into the populace. People’s temperaments reflect what kind of merchant they would be like and vice versa; there are those who are aggressive, wheedling, honest, vague, pushy, or relaxed. Though this makes the people diverse, there’s always an edge of competitiveness even behind the most serene and laid back individual. On the whole, most people in Ilyamen tend to be either outright combative all the way down to simple passive-aggressiveness, all with a streak of suspicious nature. After all, as the Ilyans say, “Everyone is selling something.”

Jobs
    Ilyamen is a land of opportunity. Unlike many nations, they offer a wide range of jobs and most people are free to pick and choose what they want to do in life. Though most jobs relate to the market, Ilyamen is a large and hungry land with a disinclination to spend money on actively importing goods. As it is located in the heart of Naruta, it is surrounded by rich resources. Farming and hunting are valuable jobs, as is excavation of stone and metals from deep in the earth. Woodcutters can be fairly well off as Ilyamen boasts a number of woods. It is the third most prominent exporter of wood, falling behind Humontis and the Beastlands.
   
Individuals that come from business owning families might find their choices more sharply curtailed depending on the nature of the family. More often than not, out of a desire to see a business remain ‘in the family’ the firstborn child of a merchant is pushed into learning the trade and taking over eventually. However, Ilyamen law states that all owned property go to the next of kin on the death of the owner, meaning that even if nobody in the family is trained in the running of a business, they still own it and can find many eager individuals looking to be employed as managers. Because of this, many of the oldest businesses in Ilyamen have remained in the same lineage for dozens of years.

Education
    Education in the traditional sense is not a mandatory function in Ilyamen, but most of its citizens are well educated. It is up to the family to teach young children the basics of reading and writing, but given that both of these skills are crucial for running a business (and especially sums), nearly every family has at least one member who can teach the others, or even barring that they can find a tutor willing to teach them. Most children learn the basics, and then upon reaching adolescents are let loose to learn whatever they need in order to get into the career of their choice. Apprenticeship is the most common form of education; the pupil learns what they need to start on the trade later in life and the mentor gets free or ludicrously cheap labor in return. If there’s anything that motivates an Ilyan, it’s money and keeping as much of it in your possession as possible.
   
This system can be abused, however, as corrupt businessmen take on several urchins from lower-income families, promising to teach them valuable skills but leaving them fairly ignorant and forcing them to do menial or backbreaking labor that requires little to no cognitive skill, all the while never having to pay them or pay them only very little, as per their mentor-apprentice agreement. These individuals are either punished or manage to skirt the law depending on how wealthy and influential they are. Most that bother to do this are aware that they have the means of keeping themselves out of trouble, and often enough the apprentices are too young to realize that they’re being exploited. By the time it dawns on them, they’ve often grown to an age where it becomes harder to find mentors to teach them real skills. In this way, there’s always a layer of poor, uneducated lower class that you can find on the underbelly of the city.

Food
    Ilyamen does not have a cultural dish or particular taste. Given that so many of its people come from other lands (or descend from immigrants), they compensate by offering anything under the sun. Most food is easy to acquire and what isn’t is (reluctantly) imported. Their crossroads placement means that the cost of doing so is very low, and often the cost of importing is made up by the fact that merchants will often flock with these regular caravans in hopes of finding an eager market in Ilyamen to sell their wares. In this way, Ilyamen is able to reproduce any dish from anywhere if one just knows where to look.

Fashion
    Ilyamen boasts a great deal of different fashions to reflect its mixed heritage culture. However, one things that remains universal within the land is that it isn’t how your garment is cut—it’s what it’s cut out of. People are more likely to look at the materials of your garments than how much or how little skin is revealed. The lower classes resign themselves to garments of linen or rough, cheap wool both undyed. Middle class individuals favor higher grade wool, soft cottons, usually dyed in brighter colors. And finally the richest individuals can be seen parading about in silks, satins, and velvets all using the most expensive of colors—deep purples, vibrant reds, and vivid blues with hints of cloth-of-gold.
   
Jewelry and accessories are also important to the overall impression given by one’s clothing. Lower class individuals aspiring to make themselves seem wealthier than their means may scrimp and save up for an indulgent purchase of jewelry or a fine, silken scarf or other accessory that draws the eye away from their more meager clothing. Middle class individuals who are also seeking to make an impressive show will sometimes bedeck themselves in jewelry, handkerchiefs, silky gloves, and such until it falls this short of gaudiness. Interestingly, the upper classes tend to show some restraint, limiting themselves to only a few pieces of high quality goods. The “new” rich—those that have managed to claw their way to the position within their own lifetime—will often fall into the pitfalls of over-showing that the middle class does, however.

Leisure
    With their own Bardic Guild at hand, most Ilyans highly enjoy the arts offered and will seek out bardic performances wherever they may pop up or, if adequately rich enough, will hire private entertainment. Ilyamen also boasts a hungry desire for theatre and plays are put on more often than the other nations that happen to host a Bardic Guild.
   
Ilyans also enjoy watching a bit of sport and so public sparring is carefully encouraged, though strictly monitored by the guard so as not to get out of hand. Outside the city, where it’s mostly farmland and small villages, many folks will sacrifice a day to view or participate in the popular Ilyan sport of karun.

Karun involves two teams, a cart, and an animal to pull it—usually an ox or a mule as the animal must not spook too easily, making horses undesirable. One team flanks the cart while a single member of the opposite team stands or sits within it. Sometimes this is replaced by an object or some other stand-in. The opposite team is armed with three or upwards leather skin balls. The goal of team two is to throw the balls at the individuals guarding the cart while the first team leads the cart on a predefined stretch of ground. If struck, a person must fall ‘dead’ to the ground. Anyone who catches a skin with their hands, however, is free to use it to strike back. If the first team gets their cargo to their goal, they win. If the second team defeats the first or manages to retrieve their ‘stolen’ teammate or cargo, they win.

Family
    Family relations differ by caste, though on all levels there’s a certain amount of competitiveness. In the poorer castes, individuals are free to marry whomever they desire. There is nothing to force marriage, not even social pressure, so it is not terribly unusual for a lower class woman to become pregnant and remain unwed. These women do poorly on their own, however; if their family will not support them and they haven’t any trade, skills, or property, they often become whores or similar.
   
Lower class families struggle to remain fed and so it is expected that everyone will work or be in the process of learning how to work. When times are hard, this can cause tempers to flare with accusations of slacking off. When times are prosperous, however, there is a sense of accomplishment that the entire family shares.
   
Middle class families are often motivated by a desire to rise in station and so marriages are often arranged to maximize the gains of a family. If a business deal sours or something occurs to make the match awkward or unsuitable, it is not uncommon for an arranged marriage to be called off so that a better deal can be struck elsewhere. Elopement is not terribly uncommon, though children who elect to do so, especially if it involves breaking an arranged marriage, are sometimes disowned.
   
On this level, families usually have the wife helping with business unless there are small children to mind, in which case she often stays home and abstains from work unless she is the sole breadwinner of the family. Once children are old enough to apprentice, they are pushed off on that while the wife returns to her duties working with her husband.
   
Finally, the upper classes are able to afford the luxury of marriage for love or pleasure, though arranged marriages can still happen, particularly if the family has fallen on lean times for years at a time or the family finances have been mishandled. Generally, this caste marries within their own means, rather than marrying down unless a particularly promising family from the middle classes tries to ‘snatch up’ an illustrious family that is struggling.
   
Most of the members of family here are allowed to seek whatever pleasures or diversions they desire. The husband is often engaged with managing his business, though if he is wealthy enough or incapable, he may hire someone else to do so while reaping the benefits of his business’s income. Wives and children often spend their days in idleness, seeking diversions or education of a more luxurious manner. The family, secure in their power base, are cordial and comfortable around each other in a way that most families in Ilyamen are not.

Religion
 Religion plays an interesting role in the lives of Ilyans. The Forces are usually only prayed to most fervently during the hard times in life and otherwise ignored. However, not wanting to seem disrespectful, the most common form of worship is through the coin. Families who are able to afford the expense often make donations to the church of the Force of their choice or the Force that best embodies what it is they most desire. A family struggling to produce an heir will often make a generous contribution to the temple of Efil. One coping with the loss of a family member will pay to the temple of Taed. For this reason, Ilyamen’s temples are luxurious, ostentatious, and contribute the most funding in tithes to the Force Homes.
   
The statues of the Forces are as follows:

Efil is shown as a winged woman. Her statue sports a shawl of the finest silk draped upon her slender frame. She smiles down upon people with one hand held outward as if beckoning them to her loving embrace.

Taed is a tall, robed man, his face naturally shadowed by the shape of his statue. Leaning in too close for inspection shows a skeletal face grinning back. He grips a real scythe made of ebony wood and polished silver.

Etaf is shown as a middle aged woman with a third eye within her forehead made of a large amethyst. Her eyes are sapphires. She clutches arrows within her hands, their tips splayed in all directions.

Thuoth is shown as a woman with a small stack of gold-gilded coins in one hand and a ledger tucked under an arm. Her eyes are narrowed and her lips slightly pursed—a look often seen on the faces of many vendors and shoppers alike in the midst of haggling.

Worg is depicted as a man in middle-class clothing, a fur and velvet cloak hanging from his shoulders. He is poised to face Thuoth, a look of stubborn resistance on his face. Several solid gold rings adorn his fingers and the ledger laying open at his feet are marked with signs of a most prosperous and growing business.

Soahc is shown as a short middle aged man with a great belly, squinty eyes, a bushy beard, and a look of intense glee on his face. There’s a faint discoloration on his clothing, the stone used here a few shades darker than the rest, and giving the impression of greasy stains from overindulging. One hand holds a fistful of coins—and a coin purse rides on his hip off his belt, near to bursting with money—while the other hand holds a pair of dice carved of real ivory.