#artograch

[ways-of-darkness]

I have mentioned that High Elves are homophobic, right?

[ways-of-darkness]

@politically-incorrect-jew

http://ways-of-darkness.sonck.nl/King_Calder_I_of_Etrand

[ways-of-darkness]

Origins can be seen here.

[ways-of-darkness]

High Elves, Wood Elves, Humans

Elves

High Elves The Good:

Awesome architecture, clean and orderly settlements. All settlements have plumbing. All of them. Even the lowliest hamlet does. Also, the cities are kept very orderly. There is a zero-tolerance policy towards public violence, thievery and other kinds of crimes.

Nice art, nice music, good food. Overall, nice traditions that come from an ancient culture. They are a nation of superb poets, architects, painters and sculptors.

Beautiful women.

Lots of ancient buildings that are still standing and operation - their country is a golden mine of ancient history for tourists.

Relatively peaceful. Their religion teaches that blood vengence is a bad thing, that forgiveness and compassion are good things. They are rather forgiving towards friends who occasionally do wrong things.

The Bad:

Alcoholism: High Elves are very fond of their wine. This implies that binge drinking may or may not be a serious-but-overlooked problem in High Elven society.

Rigid social expectations / Unfair gender roles. Men are expected to be strong, always ready to do back-breaking and blood-sweating work, while women are expected to be heterosexual (therefore, unmarried women are expected to be on the sexual marketplace for men).

Honour-culture coupled with clannish family unit: Extended families (or clans) are ruled by patriarchs, and family honour/reputation is a serious business - your family's honour/reputation is considered more important than the well-being of the actual family members.

Perfectionism: Beneath the super-clean and orderly cities lies an obsession with the aforemention cleanliness and orderliness that's kinda creepy.

Xenophobia: High Elves look down on foreigners and consider them inferior. (Doesn't stop rebellious young High Elven women from opening their legs to Humans and Orcs though)

Wood Elves The Good:

In tune with nature. Not only Wood Elves are green and take care of nature, but they also take care of their own inner nature - depression and suicide are almost unheard of among Wood Elves, Wood Elves are a generally happy folk - even the ordinary Wood Elf spends a considerable amount of time mediating, taking care of their own mental health and preserving their own inner peace.

Sexually liberated. While Wood Elven attitudes towards sexuality still contain several double standards, and they still recognize the the primacy of heterosexuality and enforce it by law, they do not criminalize non-hetero sexuality, go for an "each for their own" attitude as long as only two people are involved.

Spiritual: As stated above, even the ordinary Wood Elf devotes a considerable amount of time to meditation and taking care of their spiritual needs.

Artistic: They are a nation of warrior-poets and bards.

Pacifistc.

The Bad:

Technophobic: They are WOOD elves, living in forest cities. Go figure.

Pretentious and Xenophobic: While not as prentious as High Elves, they still openly consider other races, religions and cultures inferior to theirs, and act all innocent (with a cat-smile) when the aforementioend foreigners get angry over being considered inferior.

Militaristic social expectations: All able-bodied males are expected to train and be always-ready for war. Not being good with the sword and the bow is not an option, unless you have the excuse of being crippled, or a druid.

Humans The Good:

Tolerant: The Humans of Etrand have gotten exposed to various foreign cultures over the ages, they have gotten used to seeing Elves, Orcs, Lizardmen, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings walking among them. Hearing a xenophobic outburst from a Human is a rare thing.

Agreeable: Most Humans are less likely to judge you than people of other races. They mind their business, you midn yours.

Dynamic: Given their much shorter lifespans, it's understandable why Humans would be more dynamic to the more conservative and dogmatic Elves, and why Humans are kinds of adaptation to all sorts of situations.

The Bad:

Mobbish: Humans are much more prone to mob-mentality than people of other races.

Culturally apropriating: They are arguably the worst offenders in all of Artograch.

Inpatient: Compared to the much more patient and calculating Elves, Humans tend to react much more quickly with impulse, often making the wrong decision.

[ways-of-darkness]

The Yanus Protocol

My first real worldbuilding post.

The Yanus Protocol an agreement between church and state. Originally between Froturn and the Church of Titanius, but later Etrand and Artaburro signed it too. Basically, it states that the Church and the state have their own laws and judge people accordingly on their property, and they shouldn't disturb each other.

Case A: The King of Froturn wants someone executed for treason, but the Church defends the person as innocent. The Church puts the person under its defense, which can mean one of two things: either house arrest in a church/chapel/cathedral or a monastery (in Church property, basically), or exile to a Titanist country with a more religious king... like Etrand.

Case B: The Church condemns someone as a heretic or apostate. The King of Froturn chooses to defend the person as innocent, granting the person immunity from the Church's judgement... in Froturn. The person is then forbidden to enter Church property, and if he goes to a Titanist country with a more religious King - like Etrand - the best case scenario is him getting deported back to Froturn.

Or alternatively, the Church and the state could just make a compromise on the fate of the condemned. More often than not, this happens.

If the Church takes a condemned - condemned by the King - person under its protection, the King doesn't dare to use his soldiers to knock down a monastery's door and kidnap the condemned person, because... that would be a huge scandal resulting in the King's excommunication, massive rebellions, etc.

Likewise, if the King gives someone immunity from the Church’s judgement, and that person travels to a Titanist country with a more religious King, the religious King doesn't usually have that traveller judged by the Church’s laws (executed/imprisoned), because that would cause a diplomatic incident. Instead, he just has the person deported back to the less religious King’s country.

http://ways-of-darkness.sonck.nl/Yanus_Protocol

I think this system is a good system, and is a much better way of separating Church and State than in real-life, where the state keeps pointing a gun at the church, while the church keeps bitching and moaning.

It’s also the reason why Artograch will never have gay marriage, among other things. The state might legalize homosexuality at one point, but the Church won’t. And marriage is the Church’s business in this world.