Assorted Anuirean cultural questions

[prince_dios]

1) What sort of gender roles does Anuirea have? I mean, in the case of nobles mystical blood probably outweighs cultural traditons, but what about the peasants? I mean, is half of each nation's army, each guild, et cetera made up of women or are males the dominant gender?

2) What sort of chivalric tradition does Anuirea have? Or are knights just anyone who can afford a horse and armor?

3) What sort of technological developments have occured lately? I recall someone mentioning here that fireworks have been developed. Magic is rare in Cerillia, surely it being like Forgotten Realms where nothing changes over the millenia would be silly.

4) Is there a set of common Anuirean laws anywhere? Each domain is certainly different, but as a rule of thumb: can a noble get away with murdering a peasant? What sort of crimes usually warrant the death penalty? Are peasants bound to their province?

Also, geography questions:
1) Is there any reason Mieres is as small as it is?(it's surrounded by uncontested lands) Do they have regular contact with the Andu?

2) What are on the islands surrounding Cerillia? Albielle is a haven for pirates, iirc. What about Cael Corwynn, Baerghos, and Dantier? There must be a reason why they're unsettled, certainly.

3) Where is mount Deissmar

[Danip]

1) What sort of gender roles does Anuirea have? I mean, in the case of nobles mystical blood probably outweighs cultural traditons, but what about the peasants? I mean, is half of each nation's army, each guild, et cetera made up of women or are males the dominant gender?

Similar to the rest of DnD. Women are officially equal it seems, but almost all the guards and soldiers you meet are men. Up to DM to remove gender bias i guess.

3) What sort of technological developments have occured lately? I recall someone mentioning here that fireworks have been developed. Magic is rare in Cerillia, surely it being like Forgotten Realms where nothing changes over the millenia would be silly.

Around the time of Diesmaar the humans were certainly less advanced it is hinted. Of course that was like 2000 years ago. Things do seem to advance slowly. The advance of civilization is a theme in rjurik lands.

4) Is there a set of common Anuirean laws anywhere? Each domain is certainly different, but as a rule of thumb: can a noble get away with murdering a peasant? What sort of crimes usually warrant the death penalty? Are peasants bound to their province?

Forget if they are spelled out, but i recall there having been Imperial laws. The empire was nearly everywhere so their laws are kinda the base historical standard. Dont think they were spelled out. DnD and legal codes dont mix too well.

Also, geography questions:
1) Is there any reason Mieres is as small as it is?(it's surrounded by uncontested lands) Do they have regular contact with the Andu?

2) What are on the islands surrounding Cerillia? Albielle is a haven for pirates, iirc. What about Cael Corwynn, Baerghos, and Dantier? There must be a reason why they're unsettled, certainly.

3) Where is mount Deissmar

1) A blasted maybe toxic desert is there i think. Several other board members are much more expert on Aduria than I. Search the old posts...
2) Open for DM ideas. My dm used them as places to place adventure modules.
3) It was on the land bridge between Cerelia and aduria. South of imperial city/south coast. It was a BIG explosion.

[prince_dios]

I wouldn't say that D+D has gender equality so much as it pretends gender issues don't exist.

Take modern Earth - even the most progressive nations have double-standards and disparities in the realms of employment, education, and expected behavior. I'm a bit reluctant to believe that Oerth is a egalitarian utopia.

[Doyle]

A lot of ground for one thread to cover there ;-) Fortunately Danip has covered most of it. For further detail, I suggest you check out the archives, there have been arguments... I mean, detailed discussions on most of what you have asked at some stage over the years, including some really interesting ideas on the uninhabited islands and lands external to Cerilia.

My opinion on some of these;
1) Gender balance - more balanced than (most) medieval equivalent areas, but still much less balanced than modern day. Not much detail on gender balance is given in most of the supplements, but in the Vos expansion (TotHW) it mentions specifically that it is different culturally in that respect from the other human races.
3) Tech advances – {I’ve written, read and then deleted my answer to this one three times now, so you can put up with this version } – pre Diessmaar, the humans arrived as tribes and there is mention of bronze weaponry and armour. Brechtur seems to be at about our renaissance period. So for about 2,000 years, the advancements seem about right, even a little fast given the comparative lack of population (pooling and trading knowledge).
Of course there is also a theory that the land itself is acting against human advancement (sort of a Gaia theory – also in the archives)
G1) Meires expansion – I think from the books, the lands around Mieres have been considered up until recently, uninhabitable by anything except beast-men, mutants and lizard-folk.
G2) Islands – not canon, but I think the consensus was Albiele and Baerghos: pirate havens, Caelcorwynn: Elf protected reserve for faerie creatures no longer found on the mainland since the deforestation, Dantier: a neutral trading port. There are other islands around the continent in non Anurean waters that have had something interesting ascribed to them, but I don’t recall at the moment.
G3) The land bridge mount Deissmar – was somewhere in the area now known as the Straights of Aerele. Given that most of Cerilia’s best and finest (good and evil) were still there when the land sank, there should be a fortune in magic weapons and armour, not to mention items with possible blood abilities. It may have been a large battlefield, it’s somewhere in a 50x350 mile area, Haelyn knows how deep, patrolled by a sea serpent Awnsheigh – good luck to the PC’s trying to find it.

Detail on laws and chivalric traditions have been discussed to some detail a while back, again, it is worth checking the archives.
Hope this helps,
Doyle

[Osprey]

Others have written to give the "official" perspective to these questions. Many of the answers aren't canon at all, however, which is good if you're a creative DM who likes "write-ins" in your setting. Here's a few of my own answers, as a Birthright DM, to your questions:

1) What sort of gender roles does Anuirea have? I mean, in the case of nobles mystical blood probably outweighs cultural traditons, but what about the peasants? I mean, is half of each nation's army, each guild, et cetera made up of women or are males the dominant gender?

According to the D&D core rules, there are no significant ability differences between men and women. Hence, with a single sentence WOTC has eradicated a vital biological basis of human history. I'm something of an amateur historian and anthropologist, so to me it's laughable to posit the existence of a non-sexist warrior culture. I very much doubt that if women had the same physical potential as men that human society would have developed in the way it has through Earth's history over the last 50,000 years or so. I can speculate that there might be a lot less focus on hierarchical systems of power, and more cooperative forms of governance - but that's only speculation, who can really say how things would be different? I generally assume that in Cerilia, it is most often men who take up occupations of war and violence. While women can be just as good at it, the evolutionary fact is that men are more disposable. One male can father fifty children, but one female can bear only so many children. Losing men to war can hurt a society's labor pool, but losing women hurts its reproductive pool, and that threatens the very basic necessities of survival. Having a 50/50 split between men and women in the military is really just downright stupid unless you're trying to deal with overpopulation, and actually want to lower your society's birth rate and future population.

In other, non-lethal professions, I expect women are much more common than in medieval Europe. The hardest labor jobs (ex: mining) might favor men if only because they also tend to be physically taxing and/or dangerous. But working within guilds, temples, law, and on the land (farming) could be done as easily by either gender, and thus I think it safe to assume they're fairly equally represented (perhaps more women, especially in realms with big militaries). Cerilia is not so safe and wealthy that it can afford to have many non-working adults.

Amongst the Anuirean nobility, I use the historical (medieval) model for the "typical" Anuirean noble family/estate: the lord (patriarch) is a warrior (knight), and concerns himself mostly with honing his martial skills and fielding a contingent of troops for his liege in times of war. His lady wife (matriarch) is the brains of the operation: she manages the estate and noble household, educates the younger children (both her own and any fosterlings), and is the most typical "face" of public relations with their subjects.

So long as warfare and military threat remain a percieved necessity, I expect the majority of Anuirean noble title-holders will remain warriors, and thus be male-dominated.


Here's a few other cultural differences to consider: most D&D worlds are heavily modeled on Earth's middle ages. Yet any solid construction of a fantasy culture should account for the massive differences between a fantasy world and our own historical one. Gender is only one of those glaring contrasts. Ever think about some of the other differences in cultural/social identities?

Introduce divine and arcane magics with very visible effects, and already you have a huge cultural shift away from the historical model. People don't need faith to believe in the gods, they need only witness a priest performing a "miracle" to know that the gods are very real and powerful. Same with arcane magic to recognize it as a real, wondrous, and terrifying power (though the relative rarity of true magic in BR makes mages less of a "known" aspect of the human culture).

Introduce friendly and hostile non-human, intelligent races, and we have another sizable departure from history. However, this one's easier to adapt: non-humans become the default targets of racism. Marauding humanoids can quite easily be the racial enemy of whole nations of people, the Sidhelien are the 'faeries' of Cerilia, etc. This is probably the most typical default attitude for Cerilian realms, most of whom have hostile borders with non-human territories that spawn hostile raiders are on a fairly regular basis.

I usually assume racism is a norm, and adjust a society's attitudes and targets of racism according to their exposure. A people who rarely encounter outsiders of other races or even human cultures would be quite similar to medieval societies, turning discrimination inward against the freaks, weaklings, and misfits. Totally insulated realms are rare in Cerilia, however, thanks to the patches of wildlands and Awnshegh-dominated domains that send out periodic waves of raiders to renew the humans' fear and hatred of them. Should the Spiderfell ever be eliminated, much of the Anuirean interior would probably become insular and "humano-centric."

Cosmopolitan human cities (ex. the Imperial City and maybe Ilien), where humans of many cultures mingle regularly, yet non-humans are rare, emphasize this aspect of social and racial identity (ex: "I'm Anuirean, Khinasi, Brecht," etc).


Some food for thought, anyways...this post became too long to address your other questions, I'll respond in a different post to them.

Osprey

[Osprey]

2) What sort of chivalric tradition does Anuire have? Or are knights just anyone who can afford a horse and armor?

I expect most knights come from the ranks of the nobility. Knights aren't just "anyone who can afford a horse and armor." Wealthy merchants, for example, might have the money, but utterly lack the desire and skills to do so. Better to hire someone else to go die for your money.

There are strong suggestions from the BR texts that say that knighthood and chivalry are distinctly Anuirean traits (Haelyn is their patron deity, after all, and he is the god of nobility, justice, and war. Sounds like a chivalric model to me!). Using a historical model, it stands to reason that the nobility are the only group with the resources to train and equip knights. Training for knighthood was something begun in childhood, and practiced for many years through the stages of page and squire.

The social status accompanying knighthood would keep it something of a jealously guarded privelage, I think. Nobles and militant temples tend to be the two main sources of knighthood as far as I can tell, and most temples probably induct adult members from the established nobility, rather than raise and train them from childhood themselves.

In more violent border realms, such as Mhoried and Boeruine, I expect the practical necessities of war might allow for more flexible social mobility. Nobles die, and new ones must be raised up to replace them. Moreover, there is simply a greater need for professional soldiers, too, and I expect landless knights in military service are a common occurence there.

Finally, the culture of "adventuring," so integral to the D&D setting, will certainly have some impact as well. This seems to be one of the main grounds for creating "heroes," and it's likely that many adventurers could earn knighthood through heroic deeds in service to a realm. That, and successful adventurers tend to spend a lot of their money on good armor and a sturdy mount, so they tend to qualify in that respect as well.

3) What sort of technological developments have occured lately? I recall someone mentioning here that fireworks have been developed. Magic is rare in Cerillia, surely it being like Forgotten Realms where nothing changes over the millenia would be silly.

My impression of Anuire is that it has been technologically stagnant, in the main, for a LONG time now. It seems that the first century of the Anuirean Empire, under Roele, was the big explosion of human development, the introduction of a Golden Age of stability, advancement, and growth. I expect the Anuirean Empire reached the height of its development some 200-500 years after its founding (rough guess). But after the first few centuries, things slowed down, stagnated, became corrupt, and eventually the Empire falls apart.

550 years later (in the default Anuirean campaign start date, 551 MR), Anuire continues to struggle through its Dark Age. The Imperial City is a shadow of its former glory, since the wealth of a great empire no longer flows through it. The Royal College of Sorcery works to regain some of the lore and power that was lost, and institutions in general seem more preoccupied with preserving knowledge than with its advancement.

You can always write in "burps and hiccups" within this broad pattern...individual inventions and developments by creative individuals. But without a cultural support network (like a Renaissance), I doubt most of these advancements will become anything more than curiosities and oddities - with the exception of advances in warfare, which would be highly prized because of its utility in a violent age.

Hence, general "levels of technology" sem variable to me. I assume most Cerilian realms are several steps ahead in the military areas of tech (arms and armor crafting especially, also miltary engineering, siegecraft, and tactics) than in others, with the notable exception of gunpowder (IMC, I have introduced gunpowder, but it requires Alchemy to make it, and hence is the province of magicians and wizards).

4) Is there a set of common Anuirean laws anywhere? Each domain is certainly different, but as a rule of thumb: can a noble get away with murdering a peasant? What sort of crimes usually warrant the death penalty? Are peasants bound to their province?

As Danip said, assume the Imperial laws are the basis for individual realm laws. That being said, though, there were probably a lot of corrupt laws introduced in the latter centuries of the Empire, and the evolution of individual realms' laws in the last 550 years would allow for a pretty huge variation in the specifics.

In general, I'd say look to the realm's regent, esp. alignmnet, for an indication of law types (and check out the Book of Regency, too - free download from WOTC). Lawful realms tend to be fairer (one law for all, high and low - law "by the book"), chaotic realms tend to have less over-arching law and more case-by-case judgements ("What book?"). Good realms tend to have less painful/lethal punishments, evil ones love to heap on the suffering to intimidate a populace into submission (I had Jaison Raenech of Osoerde using mass impalements of political subversives and their kin: he lined the major roadways with his victims as blatant warnings to those who would oppose him).

In present-day Anuire, landed regents are very much like petty kings and queens, and have been for over five centuries now. Their laws should reflect this reality of independence and lack of unification.

Also, geography questions:
1) Is there any reason Mieres is as small as it is?(it's surrounded by uncontested lands) Do they have regular contact with the Andu?

IMC, the lands west and south of Mieres are lifeless wastelands, inhabited only by roving bands of the undead. This "Dead Zone" creates constant problems for Mieres, and is absolutely uninhabitable by humans or any other living creature. Arcane magics are useless in this place without mebhaighal. There is no barrier between the physical and shadow world here, though this matters little as only the undead surivive for long in this place. The Wastelands are sometimes a popular area for short-term expeditions by crusaders and militant zealots who like to beat up undead (paladin training grounds).

This cursed zone also extends far out to sea, creating freak violent weather and claiming careless ships and crews to become undead ghost ships preying upon the living who venture too close.

Makes exploration south by land impossible, by sea possible only with some really expert deep-ocean navigation.

My explanation for this is that the blast at Deismaar was mainly shunted south by the dying gods - or at least Azrai's blighting essence was. Perhaps his deep connection with Aduria drew his energy in that direction, who knows?

IMC, Mieres establishing contact by sea with the east coast of Aduria (south of the blight) was the beginning of a brave new world, one in which Mieres eventually massed an army and forged an empire out of disparate city-states there.

2) What are on the islands surrounding Cerillia? Albielle is a haven for pirates, iirc. What about Cael Corwynn, Baerghos, and Dantier? There must be a reason why they're unsettled, certainly.

Dantier? No idea, never really touched it.

I have Caelcorwynn as a magically warded isle (always under the Ward province realm spell), something like an elven Avalon. It is inhabitated by the Sidhelien refugees from the Erebannien, who have become a rather unusual elven "tribe" cloistered on their island sanctuary. They have a naval version of the Gheallie Sidhe - the Corsairs of Caelcorwynn sail small, swift ships, manned by Sidhelien warrior-sailors and elementalist mages, and prey upon human shipping in the sea-lanes of around southeastern Anuire. They take pains to leave no witnesses...meaning no survivors of their attacks. Vicious.

Albiele and Baerghos I had as human pirate havens, though Baerghos' forested, hilly interior was home to some nasty beasties who kept the pirates pinned in fortified villages on the coast. Albiele was a nicely developed little pirate realm, complete with land, law, guild, temple, and source regents (1 province, but hey - they were kings of their little world) - at least, until Mieres came and cleared them out altogether (IMC).

Osprey

[ausrick]

From what I’ve gathered from the different Players Secrets book, is that all the different Anuirean states are similar, yet when it comes to social and legal issues just a bit different. Roesone, for example, is mentioned as being different in that it was not founded by traditional nobility but by a mercenary captain in a land full of independent, individualistic freedmen. This kind of gives them a frontier/pioneer/settler feel and I play that up when my PC’s travel through there. A noble walking down the street may lean over a fence post and ask a commoner how the weather is, and on the same token the nobles of that realm may not seem as refined/aristocratic/old-money as in some of the other realms. By contrast, I get the feeling that over-all Anuire is in a late Feudalism, where the growing merchant class is starting to signal the death of the nobility. In my campaigns, struggles between these classes often come up at court. Anything from the laws about how merchants can dress as they can begin affording the luxuries of nobles down to lawsuits where nobles thought they could go into debt to continue their lifestyles in the face of dwindling agrarian profits and get away without paying the lower class money lenders. (And of course the church swoops in to buy the debt and force the nobles to pay them instead.) Ghoere seems like a good target to bring the oppressive side of feudalism to the foreground since people like to make them the bad guy as much as possible anyways so what is the oppression of some land-bound serfs going to hurt. The Brecht seem a lot less nobility based and have a lot more of a merchant class emphasis, so in my campaign I would consider them mostly freemen with a market economy. I also look to the religion of an area to think how they might treat people. The Orthodox Imperial Temple, for instance, seems so set on the order of society and enforcing a caste system so to say that in places where it is dominant, the oppression of peasants is going to be more apparent IMO. (a funny question, but in BR. Could a LG character accept a culture that is set up to be “unfair” to the lower classes? The DMG (Or maybe it was the Book of Exalted Deeds) says no, that G fights injustices from an enlightened point of view, even if living in un-enlightened times. But I would say that BR is a little more Unenlightened than D&D makes their traditional settings turn out to be.)



When it comes to how I treat NPC women in my campaign, they typically aren’t in standard war units and such in Anuire, but that isn’t saying there aren’t women warriors and fighters in my campaign. Usually for a woman to become an important player in the politics/military/campaign/history she will be powerful, skilled, and shrewd. But, as happens a lot in the real world, A lot of the opportunities for advancement are not as open to women as men unless they are capable of forcing those doors open. I kind of look at the cultures pseudo-historically, and then massage the ratios to be just a little more palatable to our sensibilities of this era. And any of the female players that have female characters (and I don’t allow my male players to play female characters because none of them are skilled enough to do it right.) obviously are given every opportunity that the male characters are. They face more discrimination from some NPC’s but there is always a way around any situation in my campaign. (It wouldn’t be a good time if like, in real life, there wasn’t always) and it makes for interesting Role Playing. Plus, I’m an equal opportunity DM, I find reasons for some of my NPC’s to hate any player, regardless of age, race, gender, or creed. The 12-year-old Rjurik Boy in my campaign is finding that out the hard way. He gets picked on a lot adventuring in Southern Anuire. I hope this helps or gives you some Ideas.

[Osprey]

The Orthodox Imperial Temple, for instance, seems so set on the order of society and enforcing a caste system so to say that in places where it is dominant, the oppression of peasants is going to be more apparent IMO. (a funny question, but in BR. Could a LG character accept a culture that is set up to be “unfair” to the lower classes? The DMG (Or maybe it was the Book of Exalted Deeds) says no, that G fights injustices from an enlightened point of view, even if living in un-enlightened times. But I would say that BR is a little more Unenlightened than D&D makes their traditional settings turn out to be.)

OIT is Lawful Neutral as I recall - that's why they're all about rigid social orders, rules, laws, ritual ,etc. Order, order, order, above all things. To give them a fairer slant, they probably fear the suffering and "unfairness" that chaos brings, and preach how order is for the best of everyone (while they sit near the top of said order and get rich from it).

Lawful Good regents and realms would (IMO) tend to emphasize that certain kinds of order do help the largest majority of the populace. "For the greater good" seems to sum up many LG world-views - though just what they believe to be the greater good is somewhat open to variance.

I doubt many LG characters would be all that comfortable serving someone like the OIT, at least in the long term. This does beg the question, "Just how many Paladins of Haelyn would actually be willing servants of the Orthodox Imperial Temple?" Seems to me they'd have a smaller following than the Impregnable Heart or Haelyn's Aegis. For core paladins (Haelynites in BR), I tend to believe that good vs. evil is far more important than law vs. chaos. Same goes for Cuiraecen and Neserie's champions.

Paladins of Avani... "Law Over All".

[I miss anti-paladins as core class...blackguard PrC lacks the punch of one born and bred to service of a dark god.]


So what is an enlightened point of view? More accurate to say that good fights from what they believe to be an enlightened (or as close as they can manage) point of view. The smart ones learn from and forgive their own mistakes of judgement, and grow. The dumb ones, well, you know what they say:

"You know why evil will always win? Because good is stupid!" - Dark Helmet

Osprey

[benwoodruff]

I view the Imperial Law as modern English Common Law. The legal systems of India, Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, etc. are very similar but there are differences. Those differences are from what are considered crimes, punishment for a crime, and the procedural rules. But there is enough similarily that a visitor would not be at much risk of violating the law. The interesting places would be those that are bordering other races. You would have situations like in the United States where most states are based on ECL but you have states in the SouthWest that are based on community property because of the Spanish influence (don't get a divorce there) and Louisiana which is based on Napoleonic Law.

[Rhiannon Faramiriel]

1) What sort of gender roles does Anuirea have? I mean, in the case of nobles mystical blood probably outweighs cultural traditons, but what about the peasants? I mean, is half of each nation's army, each guild, et cetera made up of women or are males the dominant gender?

If you base it on historical models, the Middle Ages was a male dominated society. Guilds did allow men and women, but not all genders were allowed in all guilds. The tanners come to mind. The work was considered too dangerous and labor intensive for women at the time.

Same thing for armies. Some women have the mentality to deal with combat and some don't. I think they are the exception rather than the rule.

What do you mean by "peasants"? Do you mean serfs who are bound to the land, lower class tenant farmers, beggars, ?

2) What sort of chivalric tradition does Anuirea have? Or are knights just anyone who can afford a horse and armor?

We based Avanil off of the French and use their chivalric notions of the Middle Ages, not the 19th century Victorian concepts.

By the 15th century you see knights taking on positions other than that of warrior. You see a rise in the Mercenary companies. Middle Class, non-nobles, could afford to buy custom suits of armour. Horses were not always covered in plate. The Middle ages was an equestrian society. Not all, but some people would have riding horses. Knights would have a string of horses, not just one: Destrier (war horse), Palfrey (gaited horse), rouncy, and pack animals if they didn't have a cart to haul their stuff around.

Farmers would most likely be using oxen, draft horses (not like the ones we know today - which BTW: knights didn't ride), or mules to plow and haul things.

Typically in the game, if you have the money and the means, you should be able to buy armour and a war horse if you need one.

3) What sort of technological developments have occured lately? I recall someone mentioning here that fireworks have been developed. Magic is rare in Cerillia, surely it being like Forgotten Realms where nothing changes over the millenia would be silly.

Don't have an answer for you here on tech dev. My game is restricted to 13th century tech.

4) Is there a set of common Anuirean laws anywhere? Each domain is certainly different, but as a rule of thumb: can a noble get away with murdering a peasant? What sort of crimes usually warrant the death penalty? Are peasants bound to their province?

We use historical court records to base the Anuirean/Imperial law in our game. If you're the regent, you can do pretty much anything, however, beat people enough and chances are you might have a revolt on your hands. Consequences of ones actions.

Murder and Rape hold the death penalty in our campaign. Theft will either get you hard time in some horrible place, the loss of an appendage, hung, or thrown in some pit with a grate over it.

In the middle ages, you could be hung for theft, especially poaching in the King's forest.

Forseeing the Kings death (fortune telling) could land you on the gallows.

So it really depends on what you want out of your campaign.

Also, geography questions:
1) Is there any reason Mieres is as small as it is?(it's surrounded by uncontested lands) Do they have regular contact with the Andu?

Might have been a little bigger before the blast. Aduria is hostile territory, the humans were fleeing across the land bridge into Cerilia to escape the Azrai. Chances are, it's a remnant or a new attempt to resettle the land and still be within range of support.

2) What are on the islands surrounding Cerillia? Albielle is a haven for pirates, iirc. What about Cael Corwynn, Baerghos, and Dantier? There must be a reason why they're unsettled, certainly.

Abilele is a haven for pirates. Cael Corwynn apparently also has "something there", Baerghos is the "home" of the Sea Drake iirc.

3) Where is mount Deissmar

It blew like Vesuvius and took the land bridge with it. People handle it differently in their own personal campaigns.

FWIW,

J