If you're Meron...
- You probably believe that the monarchy is unfair to the lower class, but wouldn’t dream of trying to change the system of government. You’re unfamiliar with exactly how the government works, but you feel there are too many rich people living off your hard work.
- You're familiar with Karbod, Haforo, Myrelyr, Tithenar, Artet, Adarel, Tannock, and the King and Queen, though you probably wouldn’t recognize any of them if you saw a picture.
- Though you claim that games are for children, you probably enjoy playing preaz at the new year and eory on rest days.
- Most people get the ninth day of the week, Renar, off work, and if they’re lucky, also Suene (day 10). What holidays you take probably depends on your religion, but almost everyone takes the equinoxes and the solstices regardless of their creed.
If you died tonight...
- You believe in a Creator, but if you’re of the lower class, you probably aren’t affiliated with any religion (unless you’re one of those oddballs who’s joined up with the Hafel religion). If you’re rich, you’re probably at least nominally Karbean—whether you’re practicing is a matter of personal preference.
- Grains are cheap. Fruit is slightly more expensive and meat is overpriced—but if you live near the water, you can get fish for almost nothing.
- You eat at a table, sitting on chairs, and if you’re in the middle class or higher you sleep in beds (north and central Meron) or on soft rugs (southern Meron).
- You don't consider insects, dogs, cats, horses, or cows to be food. You will, however, eat fowl, fish, squirrel, and pig—if you have the money.
- Rich people have garderobes. Everyone else has outhouses—holes dug in the ground.
- Communication over long distances is difficult. It is a huge deal when family members move away from their ancestral homelands.
- Travel, too, is difficult—it takes a long time to get anywhere, even if you have a horse. Though the roads are safe, you’re probably cynical about your chances of being robbed or, worse, killed. If you live in the country, you usually end up traveling anyway.
- The administrative and legislative branch of government is largely hereditary, so you’ve little chance of influencing it unless you work your way up by getting very rich or doing a service to the King. However, all landowning men are eligible to be elected to the courts, and if you desire there’s a good chance you could sit on one in your area (particularly if you live in a small community). If, of course, you’re a man. If you’re female, you’re not expected to get involved in government, though there's no specific prohibition, and you could probably name three or four famous female politicians.
- Most people are dark-skinned, of course, but it’s not unusual to see blond people with dark complexions, particularly in the south.
- You’re glad that there’s a court system to deal with hooligans, even though you think it’s biased against lower-class people (or just people like you).
- You think it’s strange when people speak languages other than Meroned—unless you live in the north, in which case you also speak a Meroned/Korbeth pidgin, and maybe even true Korbeth. Even though the Etanan war is over, you still don’t trust anyone who speaks Aywen (though you probably know a phrase or two yourself).
- You think a tax level of 50% is scandalously high.
- If you grew up in a town of any size, you probably went to school at some point in your childhood, but chances are good you can’t functionally read or write.
- Trade schools exist, but apprenticeships are much more common. If you’re in the elite it’s possible you attended the University in Kassen or one of its smaller branches in Belar or Estallen, and if you’re a Karbean priest, you were committed to them at a very young age and have spent years in training.
Everybody knows that
- You can buy milk in pottery jugs or wooden buckets, and alcohol comes by the barrel.
- Etana started the Long War, but Korba didn’t do anything to help end it, either. Good on the King for ending it, but it took long enough already. And we still can’t trust those Etanans.
- The richer you are, the less likely it is you’ll marry for love. In the north, most marriages are arranged, but usually with the input of the parties in question; in the south, things are much laxer.
- Sex happens outside of marriage all the time, but nobody talks about it. Prostitution is illegal and so is adultery.
- Once you’ve reached adulthood, unless you know someone quite well, you don’t call him or her by his or her first name. Men often call each other by surnames only and call women by surname with a title of respect or else by their husbands’ name with the same title; women of an age call each other by first names and call men by their surname with a title.
- If you're a married woman, you don't bare ankles, but arms, neck and hair are acceptable (though many wear coverings anyway). Girls start wearing long skirts when they're ready for courtship.
- If you stay at an inn, you’ll probably be sharing your room with a complete stranger.
- You probably can transact business on a local and judicial level without bribes, but if you go to a nobleman for a favor he’ll expect something in return.
- If a politican has been cheating on his wife, you would question his ability to govern.
Contributions to civilization
- You don’t know many famous playwrights or writers, but everyone knows Larade Hamenan that King Tessar was a poet. And, of course, the Speech of a Thousand Voices is one of the greatest of all time.
- Unless you’re rich, chances are if you get sick you’ll just sit it out and hope for the best. You might go to an herbalist, but you know that most physicians are frauds. You wonder why rich people don’t believe the same thing.
- Your grasp of history is shaky. You know about the Uprising of 690 and the War. You also have vague knowledge of the Occupation and of the rise of Myrelyr. Beyond that, your knowledge of your country’s past is limited to stories your grandparents told.
- The military is annoying but necessary. The police force is basically useless.
- Your country was conquered a couple hundred years ago, but the people heroically rose up and threw off their oppressors. Never mind that the occupation lasted five generations.
- You are probably either a farmer or a shopkeeper. If you’re from the north, you’re more likely to be a fisherman.
- You think of Korba as a primitive island populated only with fisherman and woodwrights, and you think it’s much smaller than Meron. You have a fiery hatred of the Etanans and all things relating thereunto, although if you’re of the younger generation you’re perfectly willing to trade with them, so long as they stay away from your people.
- The police are armed with swords and wear uniforms.
- If a woman is plumper than the average, it improves her looks.
- The biggest meal of the day is in the afternoon if you live in the south and in the evening if you’re northern.
- The nationality people most often make jokes about is the Etanans.
- · There’re parts of the city you definitely want to avoid at night.
Outside the Beltway
- You feel that your kind of people aren't being listened to enough in Kassen, but there’s nothing you can do about it.
- You care a great deal about what sort of family a person comes from, no matter where you live.
- The normal thing, when a couple dies, is for their lands and house(s) to go to their eldest son—but they often divide their possessions between all their sons (and occasionally even daughters).
- Plays are a great form of entertainment, but opera is boring and for the elite.
- The biggest holiday of the year is the New Year, which falls on the vernal equinox. Regardless of your religion, you’ll take part in a parade, play games, and feast with your family.
- You may belong to Karbea, but unless you’re a fanatic you’re probably not above making fun of it at times.
- You probably wouldn’t recognize Meron if you saw a map of it.
- Taxis are cheap if they’re the hand-drawn sort, but you have to watch out for idiots who’ll try to cheat you.
- If you want to be a doctor, you need to have a grounding in theology and sciences. Most physicians are probably also prominent philosophers (not that you’d ever have heard their names before).
- There’s no such thing as lawyers.
Space and time
- If you have an appointment, you'll mutter an excuse if you're five minutes late, and apologize profusely if it's ten minutes. An hour late is almost inexcusable.
- If you're talking to someone, you get uncomfortable if they approach closer than about two feet.
- You haggle for everything—except a bride-price. If you think your fiancee’s parents are being unreasonable, you’ll ask her to tactfully bring the matter up with them.
- You’re always welcome at your friends’ homes for a meal or just to chat—but don’t overstay your welcome, and if they’re poor, it’s polite to bring food to share.
- When you negotiate, you are polite, of course, and conscious of status. However, if you expect a good deal, you had better stick to your price or you’ll be cheated.
- If you have a business appointment or interview with someone, you expect to have that person to yourself, and the business shouldn't take more than an hour or so.
