#lufasa

[ystel]

Mixing sweet and savory spices

Lufasan cooking can be very plain, such as simple buckwheat panbreads consisting only of flour, milk or another liquid and salt, but there are also many dishes that have a large amount of seasoning, often mixing sweet and savory-aligned spices and flavors. Black pepper is often added to rich desserts to give it an extra kick and sharpness that prevent them from being just overly sweet. Sugar is often added to herbs and garlic, while spices like cinnamon as well as licorice frequently find their way into savory dishes.

Often, plain food is combined with flavorful ones to give a rounded taste. Particularly popular is slightly salty buckwheat porridge with sunflower seeds or less sweet, bready Juniper cookies with sweet cinnamon peanuts. Another example is sweetened garlic curd, often eaten in soups and on buckwheat groats, or both combined.

Many spice blends and condiments exist that combine other popular flavors, and restaurants will often offer a lot of them at the table or as options on the menu.

Image sources: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (Pepper and cinnamon), Public Domain; William Woodville: „Medical botany“ (Garlic)

[ystel]

Flowers for, by and from the temple

In Lufasa, temples of the dominating religion, the panentheistic Piir, used to be located in the open landscape near trees, on heaths, meadows or near rivers, quiet places of contemplation, but with the growth of cities they often ended up becoming part of urban areas, and nowadays are also built in urban centers to cater to the needs of a changing modern society with less time and opportunities to go into the countryside.

But one thing didn't change, they are still always surrounded by flower gardens. Having flower beds on all sides was originally meant to ward off evil, remind people of the beauty of nature, and promote harmony and work supporting a stronger connection with the environment. Nowadays it has the added importance of being colorful islands in towns that otherwise can lack vegetation. The flower gardens are popular places for recreation and relaxation. People will bring new flowers to be planted, help them grow there, and buy ones there. As such, temples are also flower markets and many temple priests are also florists.

Many activities of the temples are tied into the flower gardens as well or take place there, such as meditations, storytimes and various rites. The monks will also use them to create aroma oil and herbal teas, which are highly sought after in the entire country.

Image source: Own photo (2022)

[ystel]

The Walking Mirror Monsters

In Lufasa, a popular myth says that staying too long in certain cursed locations can make a walking mirror follow behind a person or next to their side, taking on the shape of whatever that person finds the most unsettling showing them a horribly distorted image of themselves all the while whispering undermining words.

Which are those cursed locations these monsters dwell at, and where do they come from? Generally they are said to appear sites of great tragedy. which can often be a house or a mansion, or a street, but also any other place. They will start haunting someone especially if they were involved in some way, and once attached, they are very hard to shake off, and destroy a human from the inside with not a single touch.

Experts on mythology and folklore often see these as traditional, symbolic depictions of depression and traumatic disorders, something to explain why certain people have such a warped, negative view of themselves, and why it seems to be triggered by particular places.

Image source: FLAVIA BRILLI, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[ystel]

The legends of Pigeon Tower

Is this tower in a field somewhere in northern Lufasa just another old guard tower? No, it's one that used to be inhabited by nothing but pigeons, when pigeon post was still as common in Lufasa as it nowadays still is in Jute.

Many legends and stories are linked to it. What were the pigeons up to when no one was looking? One legend talks about big parties being thrown by an unknown benefactor, where pigeons danced and cooed all night, unable to work normally the following day, ruffled feathers everywhere and mail not getting delivered until it was almost too late, with one young pigeon figuring out a way to do the same trips faster: use a catapult. It worked, somewhat, and with a series of other similar "good ideas" the most important mail reached the king in time.

Another story tells of the life of a day when the pigeon tower was attacked by hawks from an enemy, and how the pigeons, coated in leather armor and armed with daggers and small pikes in their mouth fought off the invaders and even managed to trap them in a nearby pond that had a giant sturdy net thrown over it, after which the hawks were thrown into the dungeon below the tower and made help in carrying mail.

.Image source: Henk Monster, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[ystel]

Greenhouse agriculture

While Lufasa is a country with temperate climate, but a cultural legacy tied to the tropics, many ingredients of traditional meals are tropical fruits, with even the word for "holiday meal" in the national language Ohnaucan being kementsa duce or literally "pineapple meal". These crops of course can't be grown in the open like in their ancestral lands.

As a result, greenhouses are employed, where bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and in fact make Lufasa the largest (and in fact, only) producer of tropical fruits on Ystel. They are exported widely across the continent and beyond, and are part of why the country despite its small size is the regional agricultural powerhouse.

Researchers at the University of Eršaj in the capital of the same name are constantly researching ways to adapt these crops better to the local conditions, to increase yields and improve flavor, shelf-life and nutritional benefits, as well as work on bettering the greenhouses, their construction, ventilation, microclimate etc..

Image source: The Small Greenhouse, Quarry Bank Mill Upper Garden by David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[ystel]

Theater stages as a place for opining and self-expression

Community theaters are everywhere in Lufasa, with even the smallest village having at least an open-air stage. At least once a week, but often more, people gather there for impromptu performances, giving them an opportunity to act out their feelings, show off their ideas and shout out their views on anything. Sometimes they are alone on the stage, sometimes other people join them and respond, or perform in groups.

The crucial part is that no one was previously coached or trained as actor or debater, and that there is no simple memorization or recitation of previously written lines, to ensure spontaneity and authenticity in performances. Community theaters are no place for professional actors or orators. People are meant to let their minds and hearts speak rather than become someone else’s mouthpiece. Notes are allowed for discussions, as long as they are in bullet point form and everyday objects that weren’t specifically made for theater may be used as props.

The improvised plays and discussion that can follow are often more popular than scripted dramas, which are widely seen as too stilted and removed from life. With those, the ending is already determined at the beginning and can even be looked up ahead of time, with improvisation this is not possible. Due to their popularity,  performances with special guests, unique settings or with particular topics of interest may be filmed or transmitted live via radio broadcasts. 

Image source: Kellynkerr, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[ystel]

Reforestation, restoration, regeneration

Lufasa‘s primeval forests were mostly razed centuries ago, first by its native Jutic and Ystelian inhabitants, then later increasingly by Gfiewish settlers and colonizers to make room for agricultural land, to use as fuel and for construction of boats.

This deforestation resulted in incalculable habitat loss and extinction of species and meant the country, except for some wetlands near the rivers, became mostly dominated by fields and pasture, eventually leading to problems with erosion and the water cycle, especially as agriculture intensified with the advent of the industrial revolution in the early 20th century. 

However, recognition of the problem and its cause was slow and the local nobility, and after the end of monarchy following independence in 1852 influential landowners, resisted giving up what they saw as their most lucrative sources of income, so they opposed any reforestation efforts. Nonetheless, a man named Òsamas Mo led the change by beginning to plant trees in small patches of fields he had bought up, encouraging other people to do the same. This grassroots effort still met with significant opposition at first, with some landowners arguing the forests could grow uncontrollably into their fields, shelter animals that will eat their crops or kill their animals.

But by the 1960s diminishing returns from the fields became too much of an issue to ignore, international competition intensified and the looming threat of economic marginalization from other growing sectors such as trade and tourism became apparent soon forced changes, especially as public pressure, up to including successful boycott campaigns, increased. Conservation laws were passed and reforestation mandated to improve the state of the environment and its ecosystem.

Image source: Robbie Morrison (RobbieIanMorrison), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

[ystel]

To Catch A Spirit: Rice and its spiritual applications in Loheta and Lufasa

In Lohetan traditions, a small coastal country in the southwest of the big northern continent of Miraria, rice serves many important functions. It’s the staple grain of the country, and while as a chiefly pastoral society it relies more on milk and meat than an agricultural society would, it nonetheless accompanies all meals, steamed, fried, turned into noodles or cakes.

But no less important is for the population its use in various rites. As a symbol of soil fertility, fields and meadows are sprinkled every year at the beginning of the farming season with rice grains, to encourage plant growth and hence a good harvest and enough grass for cattle to feed on.

Rice is also used in shrines. Fragrant steamed rice is meant to signal good-will and respect for the deities of Loheta, the Legendaries. It is placed on altars when piping hot and removed when cold and then used in ritual dishes that have the colors of one of the two main deities, depending on which one is meant to be appeased.

Turmeric, carrots and cattle blood are added to the rice to make Heaven and Sky, a bright dish in yellow, orange and red that represents the Sky Legendary, a peacock-like phoenix that carries all the colors of the rainbow, but predominantly has the colors of the sunset. The turmeric also symbolize the sun, the home of the deity, carrots the sweetness that is a peaceful life under celestial protection, and the blood life in general and the ability of the Legendary to revive the dead. Parsley is often added as garnish, or kale added as a side to represent vegetation.

Bilberries and red cabbage are added to the rice to make Sea Power, lending the dish various blue hues that are meant to call to mind the Sea Legendary, a blue-silvery large winged lizard living in the sea. The name references the terrifying, unpredictable strength this deity has, which can make any travel far away from the coast a dangerous undertaking.

The dish is then eaten by the shrine guard on behalf of the village or urban neighborhood, which, if the Legendaries are satisified, is meant to transfer some of their strengths to the community.

When Loheta encountered South Jutean adventurers in the late 19th century, rice eventually found its way to the southernmost continent of the world, the land of Ystel.

There, it became first known as exotic grain, expensive but a favored choice by those who could afford it due to its neutral taste and soft texture which  compliments almost every dish. After the industrial revolution of the early 20th century and growing wealth, it became a more widely eaten dish, still enjoying considerable popularity due to its association with the mystical country of Loheta in the far northwest.

But it wasn’t just the grain itself that made the long journey across four seas, many traditions and myths traveled alongside it, either by seafarers who were enthusiastic about Lohetan culture or merchants seeking to use them to promote their good. However, in the process the original rites and spiritual associations were distorted and adapted to the local culture.

And so Ystel developed its own beliefs and traditions associated with rice. First, Lufasan cryptozoologists heard of the relation between rice and mythical beings, and so began to place a bowl of cooked rice in the open landscape in the hope of attracting river spirits, such as The Catcher in the Reeds and various cryptids. Later, this approach spread to other people in the countryside who sought to appease the spirits that way, and after this, it became popular with wealthier households as well to show their religiousness and/or hospitality towards the supernatural.

Finally, it became a symbol of animal friends in general, as a bowl of boiled rice shifted to symbolize a welcoming attitude not just towards spirits and cryptids, but animals in general. Establishments such as restaurants and hotels, but also private homes would put a bowl of boiled rice, or later a photo of it in their window or in front of it to show they had no problems with pets, and the symbol of boiled rice is now omnipresent in tourist guides, maps and signs and universally understood in the country.

Image source: অজয় দাস, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons