Entertainment, feasts, and other customs
Culture
Diversions
Calendar and Holy Days
Religion
Songs and Poems
Island Attitudes
Ir Alatha
Points of Interest
Academies
Miscellaneous
- Significant Cultural Factions
- Notable Alathaya
Diversions:
Racing - The island of Mela, boasting some of the largest stretches of flatter land has long been the home of various Lamdril races. The pinnacle of these is the annual Inception Day race at the enormous racing stadium in Ir Alatha.
The windy straights of Sulian, on the southern tip of Mela, host single person boat races in tiny triangular-sailed sloops called "skulls".
Fighting - The Terathi capital city of Tidoshan is centered around the Tower of the Collective in the city center. Inside, on the ground floor, various pit fights are continuously held and very well attended. Highest honor is given to those who kill their opponent with one of the wooden spears that form the railings around the ring.
Villagers throughout the known world will stage pegi fights. The birds will each go after the small fish that is tied to the head of the other bird. It is not truly a fight, in that only in the rarest occasion will anything more than scratches result. The winner of course is the first bird to get the opponents fish. Such fights are frequently the subject of betting.
Games - Any number of games of skill may be found amongst the various Alathay islands, some quite physical such as throwing or archery contests and some quite cerebral. One of the most common and celebrated board games played by young and old alike is called Clod.
Of course, playing, fishing, swimming, wrestling, riding, boating and other staples of entertainment are frequent.
Feasts, Holy Days, and the Calendar:
Calendar - There are 365 days in the Alathan calendar, divided into twelve months of exactly thirty days each. Each month consists of two and a half twelve day weeks. The remaining five days are feast days and fall outside the traditional calendar scheme.
Inception Day - This is the first day of the year and celebrates the beginning of the world and the collective birthday of all the Alathaya. Huge feasts are given in town centers. Every lamp to be found is lit and displayed.
Coming Of The Rains - This day celebrates the beginning of the winter rainy season, when temperatures drop and 80% of the year's precipitation occurs. It is celebrated on the day between the ninth and tenth months. There is much dancing in the streets with large parades.
Sunsdawn - This day marks the beginning of summer dry season and occurs between the third and fourth month. A giant bonfire is held in town centers and there is much feasting, drinking, and dancing as everyone gathers around it.
Frivoliday - This occurs at the very center of the year, on the one hundred and eighty third day. No official business of any kind is conducted. Everything becomes lighthearted, silly, and more than a little absurd. Giant surreal sculptures and other art is created around towns and many pranks are pulled on people.
The Dying Day - On the last day of the year, Alathaya visit the graves of friends, family, and ancestors, and contemplate their own mortality and the finite nature of all the world around them. It is a day of fasting and meditation and solemnity.
A painting of a savage Ebiothay Alathay dancing in a mask of Voo, on the evening beginning Sunsdawn
Religion
The Alathay worship the Aygeemya, who are beings composed entirely of various types of energy, which represent the forces at work in the world. The scroll called the Kushi Telioth is a sacred story of the creation of the world, the rise of the Alathaya, and various morality tales, inspirational sayings, and histories. When the Kushi Telioth is mentioned, it is always followed by the words "most holy of scrolls, may it ever guide us", although this is sometimes abbreviated as an acronym when written. Notable personalities in the Kushi Telioth are the Aygeemya, including Sayya, the original eternal being who split into all the Aygeemya, Pina the curious, Gadweh the gardener, the Kushi'Aweh, who was the first Alathay to use the "magics" of the Aygeemya, Arenethka and the kings of the North, Dithet the dakthay of the Tannet Pearl, and more.
Cultural Artifacts
Islands
Traditional stereotypes of the personalities of many of the islands have long been held. While there is certainly much diversity amongst individuals, the general attitudes and atmosphere of each island tends to be slanted slightly towards certain values and ideals. While many of Alatha's inhabitants live in rural villages, the major
cities of each island provide much of the cultural flavor of the
island. Learn a little about the feel of the major cities.
Those from Mela, for example, are seen as mystical, cosmopolitan, sophisticated, free in emotional expression and thoughts, egalitarian, cooperative, and light hearted. Those from Teres are seen as more stoic, valuing order and cleanliness very highly, self-reliant, strong willed, and disciplined. The Alathay of Milotho are seen as calm, pastoral, nature-loving, farming folk. Those from Sadina are viewed as morose, brooding, cynical, and dark. The Alathay of Dalana and Raviso are seen as gruff, anti-social, self-reliant hermits with either far too much concern for the mystical or far too little. Astelan and the Trobian archipelago are home to fierce, adventurous, thrill seeking, optimists. Those from Ebioth are mystical, superstitious, cautious, and only slightly more civilized than the wild Alathay living on the islands surrounding them. Dameree is filled with those who value the cerebral aspects of life, and its inhabitants are viewed as intelligent, scholarly historians, if not a bit sedentary. The peopla of the Meegasee Peninsula are thought of as simple, hard skinned, pioneers, but not exactly trustworthy. See where each is on the map.
Ir Alatha
If any city personifies the culture of the Alathaya, it is Ir Alatha of Mela, the largest city, and home to the governing body of much of the world and center of the Alathay world.
Points of Interest in Ir Alatha
Miscelaneous
Greetings and Gestures - Alathaya greet each other by clutching one fist in the other hand and tipping the head towards the other. When meeting someone for the first time and introducing oneself, it is sometimes customary to extend the hand, interlock thumbs and shake a time or two.
The term sanee or sani, means favored, honored, or revered and is used as a term of respect when addressing someone.
In most parts of Alatha, it is considered quite rude and openly hostile to stare into someone's eyes, unless the two are lovers, in which case it is seen as quite affectionate.
Two crossed fists, cracked into each other, conveys the idea of the gods striking the other person down and is seen as probably the utmost symbol of disrespect and hostility.
Kushi'Vela: The Great Sea and Maritime Culture
Death In A World Of Resurrection
Significant Cultural Factions
"Magic" in Alatha
"On Magic: A Thaumaturgical Treatise"