Post by Kizmet on Jun 13, 2011 23:23:52 GMT -5
HISTORY
Messina came into being as the Western Province of the Kingdom of Iraya. As time passed, Messina, and the Eastern Province, Aquilos, became more and more different. Messinans became lumberjacks, carpenters, metal workers, fishers, and sailors. They used the sea to their advantage, finding fishing to be profitable and eventually founding the port town of Rothryne which quickly became the richest and most important city in all of Messina, even in all of Iraya. Finally, in the year 734, Messina petitioned for and won independence from Iraya, splitting the great country in two. Little has changed in the way of life here since then.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Messinians are tall, strongly-built, and stocky. Both men and women live hard lives full of physical labor. Their hair is thick and full, varying in shade from brilliant flaming red through blonde, all the way to golden brownish-blonde. Their eyes are normally green. Men usually sport long hair and full beards, and women have long hair as well. Hair cutting is rare in Messina, except for the soldiers in times of war. They are pale-skinned people, and often are extensively freckled. They are broad faced with round eyes, large noses, and squared jaws.
POSSESSIONS
Most Messinians are very poor and have little to nothing in the way of luxuries. Their possessions are limited to necessary furniture, such as beds and tables and chairs. They all also have weapons of various sorts, many being handed down through the family. Ancient familial artifacts are the most important possessions to a Messinian, as tradition and ancestery is very important to them. Many of these items come in the form of weapons. Most Messinians will also carry a small token representative of their religion. It can be an engraved metal coin or stone, a carved bone or wood trinket.
LIVING QUARTERS
All but the richest Messinians live in cheap, shoddy wooden shacks. Most live in shacks with muddy packed dirt floors, walls made of thin sticks and tree branches mixed with clay and straw, and roofs made of sheaths of straw and muck. The homes are tiny and one-roomed, the bathroom being outside behind the home. Many poor Messinians eat and sleep on the floor. Built into the home is a small cooking hearth. Those with a little more money were able to build log cabins. These were made of fit logs with clay and straw roofs. Some had wood floors or spun rugs. Most in these cabins have beds and tables and chairs, and some have the outhouse built onto the main building or lofts built into the upper area, but for the most part these are still small one room one level dwellings. The wealthy nobles and the royalty live in brick, clay, stone, and wood houses which are much larger are fancier. Most of these homes are located in the capital, Hiyan. In Rothryne, the port city, the homes are in tight lines and made of stone with no clay so as to resist the strong sea storms that blow in on a regular basis. In Sulusk there is a large stone castle surrounded by long wooden buildings where some of the poorer students live. Farther out are normal houses where townfolks live.
SOCIAL SKILLS
The Messinians are guarded and defensive people. They dislike outsiders and are distrustful of them. The masses are distrustful of anyone wielding political power or with great wealth due to the great gap between them for the most part. Thus, the powerful and wealthy are also fearful and distrusting of them. They are a warlike people who are quick to anger and even quicker to judge. Feuds and grudges may span centuries and cost the lives of every member of the warring families in some cases. Belligerant and ill mannered, they seem rude and offensive to outsiders. They make strict parents who demand obedience and believe strongly in corporal punishment, but it is uncommon to find a Messinian child who will speak out against his or her parents. Most are very close, and the relationship is a loving one in spite of the difficulties.
DIET
Most Messinians grow their own food and raise their own livestock for food. Crops include potatos, carrots, squash, beets, turnips, radishes, pumpkins, beans, onions, melons, tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, etc. Meats include cattle, goats, pigs, chickens, etc. Other food items commonly eaten are eggs, butter, milk, bread, honey, maple syrup, and grasses and berries that can be found growing in the woods. Wild game is taken when it can be, and provides a great deal of the sustenance in the winter when the plants are not growing. This includes birds, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, rabbits, raccoons, etc. Those who live near the river, lake, or sea can add fish, crabs, mussels, clams, lobsters, crawdads, etc. to their usual diets, as well as rice that grows naturally along the flood plains.
FASHION AND DRESS
Both men and women wear homespun clothing. It is made from natural fibers, grasses, and animal skins. Clothes are typically tight, but with a great deal of flexibility. The most important thing is the ability to fight in the clothing. Women often wear dresses that reach anywhere from the knee to the ankle, as to girls. Men and boys wear britches and tunics, and sometimes the females do as well. Until the age of 3 to 5, both genders wear long dresses that resemble nightgowns. Clothing is boring and undyed, and is worn out of necessity rather than for style or aesthetic reasons. In the cold months, fur is worn by both genders.
EDUCATION
For most Messinians, there is no formal education. Children learn to hunt, fight, harvest, grow, gather, build, cook, etc. at from their parents. The learning is a part of pure survival, as without the help of every family member the family would be likely to starve. Children as young as two and three must work the fields and learn to hunt and grow, to make clothing and gather wood for fire. Learning to fight begins just as early. This is the only education most Messinians receive, practical education. Those who are extremely good at fighting go to Rothryne and train for the National Military, while those with magickal skills can go for training in Sulusk, though most who attend the school in Sulusk are foreigners, as most Messinians are too poor to go. The nobles and royalty receive formal training from private tutors, mostly from foreigners countries, or they are sent to schools in Akadia or Aquilos for their education.
COMMUNICATION
The Traders Language, also known as The Old Tongue, or Irayan, is spoken throughout Messina. Because of the war with the Nisga’l’Haida, the Haidan Language is outlawed in Messinia. Officially anyone caught speaking it will be beaten and publically humiliated, possibly fined, but on the outskirts the penalty is often death by stoning or lynching or beating. Despite this, the language is known well along the border with the Nisga, as the two peoples constantly clash and mingle here due to border disputes.
PROFESSIONS
Most Messinians are a variety of things. They are farmers, shepherds, carpenters, tailors, forgers, metal and stone and wood workers, hunters, gatherers, fishers, etc. Some of the towns can afford to have people who concentrate on a specific field, but these are towns that are very close to cities or along rivers where starvation is less likely. The nobles serve as healers, mages, advisors, bankers, merchants, etc.
MEDICINE
Messina has little in the way of Medicine. It is available in the towns, but it is unreliable and comes at a very high price. In the more distant towns and villages, only traditional folk medicines are available, most of these having little or no affect at all. Because of this, Messinians are vulnerable to disease and epidemic outbreaks. Plague, no longer a major problem in Aquilos or Akadia, is still a majr threat in Messina. Oftentimes traveling Mages provide the majority of the major healing to Messinians.
RELIGION
Most Messinians worship nature deities, praying to spirits of the water, or the ground, to help their crops grow, or for fertility, or healing. In the cities, other religions are sporadically followed, lead by Priests and Priestess who have traveled there, mostly from Aquilos, to spread their beliefs.
PROTECTION
Participation in the Messinian Military is obligation for the lifetime of all citizens of Messina. Most serve in local militias, but the very best go to Rothryne, to the military school there, to train to join the National Army.
Messina came into being as the Western Province of the Kingdom of Iraya. As time passed, Messina, and the Eastern Province, Aquilos, became more and more different. Messinans became lumberjacks, carpenters, metal workers, fishers, and sailors. They used the sea to their advantage, finding fishing to be profitable and eventually founding the port town of Rothryne which quickly became the richest and most important city in all of Messina, even in all of Iraya. Finally, in the year 734, Messina petitioned for and won independence from Iraya, splitting the great country in two. Little has changed in the way of life here since then.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Messinians are tall, strongly-built, and stocky. Both men and women live hard lives full of physical labor. Their hair is thick and full, varying in shade from brilliant flaming red through blonde, all the way to golden brownish-blonde. Their eyes are normally green. Men usually sport long hair and full beards, and women have long hair as well. Hair cutting is rare in Messina, except for the soldiers in times of war. They are pale-skinned people, and often are extensively freckled. They are broad faced with round eyes, large noses, and squared jaws.
POSSESSIONS
Most Messinians are very poor and have little to nothing in the way of luxuries. Their possessions are limited to necessary furniture, such as beds and tables and chairs. They all also have weapons of various sorts, many being handed down through the family. Ancient familial artifacts are the most important possessions to a Messinian, as tradition and ancestery is very important to them. Many of these items come in the form of weapons. Most Messinians will also carry a small token representative of their religion. It can be an engraved metal coin or stone, a carved bone or wood trinket.
LIVING QUARTERS
All but the richest Messinians live in cheap, shoddy wooden shacks. Most live in shacks with muddy packed dirt floors, walls made of thin sticks and tree branches mixed with clay and straw, and roofs made of sheaths of straw and muck. The homes are tiny and one-roomed, the bathroom being outside behind the home. Many poor Messinians eat and sleep on the floor. Built into the home is a small cooking hearth. Those with a little more money were able to build log cabins. These were made of fit logs with clay and straw roofs. Some had wood floors or spun rugs. Most in these cabins have beds and tables and chairs, and some have the outhouse built onto the main building or lofts built into the upper area, but for the most part these are still small one room one level dwellings. The wealthy nobles and the royalty live in brick, clay, stone, and wood houses which are much larger are fancier. Most of these homes are located in the capital, Hiyan. In Rothryne, the port city, the homes are in tight lines and made of stone with no clay so as to resist the strong sea storms that blow in on a regular basis. In Sulusk there is a large stone castle surrounded by long wooden buildings where some of the poorer students live. Farther out are normal houses where townfolks live.
SOCIAL SKILLS
The Messinians are guarded and defensive people. They dislike outsiders and are distrustful of them. The masses are distrustful of anyone wielding political power or with great wealth due to the great gap between them for the most part. Thus, the powerful and wealthy are also fearful and distrusting of them. They are a warlike people who are quick to anger and even quicker to judge. Feuds and grudges may span centuries and cost the lives of every member of the warring families in some cases. Belligerant and ill mannered, they seem rude and offensive to outsiders. They make strict parents who demand obedience and believe strongly in corporal punishment, but it is uncommon to find a Messinian child who will speak out against his or her parents. Most are very close, and the relationship is a loving one in spite of the difficulties.
DIET
Most Messinians grow their own food and raise their own livestock for food. Crops include potatos, carrots, squash, beets, turnips, radishes, pumpkins, beans, onions, melons, tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, etc. Meats include cattle, goats, pigs, chickens, etc. Other food items commonly eaten are eggs, butter, milk, bread, honey, maple syrup, and grasses and berries that can be found growing in the woods. Wild game is taken when it can be, and provides a great deal of the sustenance in the winter when the plants are not growing. This includes birds, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, rabbits, raccoons, etc. Those who live near the river, lake, or sea can add fish, crabs, mussels, clams, lobsters, crawdads, etc. to their usual diets, as well as rice that grows naturally along the flood plains.
FASHION AND DRESS
Both men and women wear homespun clothing. It is made from natural fibers, grasses, and animal skins. Clothes are typically tight, but with a great deal of flexibility. The most important thing is the ability to fight in the clothing. Women often wear dresses that reach anywhere from the knee to the ankle, as to girls. Men and boys wear britches and tunics, and sometimes the females do as well. Until the age of 3 to 5, both genders wear long dresses that resemble nightgowns. Clothing is boring and undyed, and is worn out of necessity rather than for style or aesthetic reasons. In the cold months, fur is worn by both genders.
EDUCATION
For most Messinians, there is no formal education. Children learn to hunt, fight, harvest, grow, gather, build, cook, etc. at from their parents. The learning is a part of pure survival, as without the help of every family member the family would be likely to starve. Children as young as two and three must work the fields and learn to hunt and grow, to make clothing and gather wood for fire. Learning to fight begins just as early. This is the only education most Messinians receive, practical education. Those who are extremely good at fighting go to Rothryne and train for the National Military, while those with magickal skills can go for training in Sulusk, though most who attend the school in Sulusk are foreigners, as most Messinians are too poor to go. The nobles and royalty receive formal training from private tutors, mostly from foreigners countries, or they are sent to schools in Akadia or Aquilos for their education.
COMMUNICATION
The Traders Language, also known as The Old Tongue, or Irayan, is spoken throughout Messina. Because of the war with the Nisga’l’Haida, the Haidan Language is outlawed in Messinia. Officially anyone caught speaking it will be beaten and publically humiliated, possibly fined, but on the outskirts the penalty is often death by stoning or lynching or beating. Despite this, the language is known well along the border with the Nisga, as the two peoples constantly clash and mingle here due to border disputes.
PROFESSIONS
Most Messinians are a variety of things. They are farmers, shepherds, carpenters, tailors, forgers, metal and stone and wood workers, hunters, gatherers, fishers, etc. Some of the towns can afford to have people who concentrate on a specific field, but these are towns that are very close to cities or along rivers where starvation is less likely. The nobles serve as healers, mages, advisors, bankers, merchants, etc.
MEDICINE
Messina has little in the way of Medicine. It is available in the towns, but it is unreliable and comes at a very high price. In the more distant towns and villages, only traditional folk medicines are available, most of these having little or no affect at all. Because of this, Messinians are vulnerable to disease and epidemic outbreaks. Plague, no longer a major problem in Aquilos or Akadia, is still a majr threat in Messina. Oftentimes traveling Mages provide the majority of the major healing to Messinians.
RELIGION
Most Messinians worship nature deities, praying to spirits of the water, or the ground, to help their crops grow, or for fertility, or healing. In the cities, other religions are sporadically followed, lead by Priests and Priestess who have traveled there, mostly from Aquilos, to spread their beliefs.
PROTECTION
Participation in the Messinian Military is obligation for the lifetime of all citizens of Messina. Most serve in local militias, but the very best go to Rothryne, to the military school there, to train to join the National Army.