Culture focus: Tugnali

[Grek]

Tugnali: When Glaciers Attack

Lay of the Land:
Tugnali is located on a freezing cold coastline, covered in glaciers and ice shelfs. The beaches are rocky with high cliffs and loose stones scatter the landscape. It is almost constantly snowing and blizzards are an every day event in the winter. The ocean there is cold enough to freeze an unprotected man or ormigan to death within minutes and is full of icebergs. While there are some trees growing, the growing season for most plants is extremely short, often only a month long, and up to half of that time it is still snowing. Despite this, the growing season is extremely fertile and provides a suprisingly large volume of plant matter for such a short amount of time.

Below ground, the land is hotter and actively volcanic. There are geysers and hot springs scattered across the land where ever there aren't glaciers. These pools are the only free standing sources of fresh water in the region, as everything else is salty ocean water or frozen soild. Small patches of grass grow year round near these pools, making them a regular stop for herds of deer and moose.

Major Cities:
A Tugnalian ice city is a large construction carved out of, build on top of and tunneled into a glacier or iceberg. They are comparable in size to a small ormigan hive, but with a much lower population of ormigans and humans. Much of the rest of the space is filled with animals and frozen meats. The buildings on top of the ice city resemble igloos in their construction, but made of carved ice as often as packed snow. The major difference between an ice city and a normal city is that an ice city can be sailed along the coast from one spot to another as a massive iceberg or made to crawl across the land as a glacier.

The Tugnalians also have smaller camps, comprised mostly of hunters or traders, with leather hunts which can be built anywhere. These groups follow the herds and trade with other civilizations. While it is possible to have a glacier-city move rapidly, this destroys the underground portion of the city and is generally avoided in favour of simply sending out a group in some tents. The fact that these camps are all that many outsiders ever see leads many to think that the tugnalians are all nomadic hunters or uncivilized barbarians who live in tents.

Economics:
The Tugnalians domesticate, breed and sell just about any wild animal they come in contact with. The tugnalian Riding Moose is a prized mount in many regions, due to it's strength, extraordinary training and extreme loyalty. Attempts by outsiders to tame these beasts have yet to succeed, due to their naturally agressive and territorial nature. The tugnalians also tame birds, bears, dogs of every shape and size, seals, crabs, squirrels and just about anything else they can find. They also have a healthy trade in fish, meats, furs, antlers and other animal products, due to their extensive domestication of the native wildlife.

The Tugnalians are very good at crafting objects from leather and bone and make most of thier housing and funiture from ice. The Tugnalians must import vegetables, metal tools and any other goods that cannot be found inside of an animal or made from ice. The richest leaders of the Tugnali also value colored cloth, jewelery, gemstones and anything else only available through trade as a status symbol.

The Tugnalians, although they live on icebergs, refuse to sail far from home because of the belief that their cities will melt if the wind blows them far enough into warmer lands. Any leader trying to take their city a long distance from their frozen homeland will face open revolt and rioting, often resulting in that leader's death. Anyone trying to sail a great distance on an iceberg is considered insane and incredibly lucky if they don't drown. This belief is not always reasonable, but is pervasive enough that questioning it makes you seem dangerously insane.

Tugnalians have an unusual taxation system: All commoners are limited to having a certain amount of property. If they go above this amount of property, all of the excess is tribute to the local noble. The only people allowed to have above this amount are the nobles themselves, who face much more strict (and lethal) legal punishments if they violate the law or fail in their legal responsibilities.

Law and Order:
Because of the society's extreme paranoia about the icebergs melting, anyone found melting ice within a mile of an ice city without being a govenment offical of that city will be lashed repeatedly or, in the case of outsiders, executed. Fire is not permitted within the city. Not even campfires for cooking or warmth are allowed. Fire mages are attacked on sight. Melting snow, if done without a fire, and freezing water into ice or snow are both acceptable practices. Turning small amounts of ice into snow is allowed, but any large amount is cause for concern and melting it afterwards is strictly forbidden. The legal system on what can and cannot be melted is extensive and uses over a dozen different terms for differnt sorts of frozen water.

Murder, assault and violent crimes against people are punished with tattooing of the face and exiling the offender. If at sea, a small iceberg will be constructed and some fishing hooks provided. If on land, a spear or bow will be given to the exiled. Oftentimes, these exiles will group with eachother and form hunting or fishing camps and live a fairly decent life trading with other ice cities. If a noble kills a commoner, however, the noble will be killed.

Theft, killing of animals, destruction of property not made of ice and other material crimes are punished with the "eye for an eye" principle, if the dispute is between commoners. If between a noble and a commoner, the noble is obliged to provide the commoner with many times what was lost or face ousting by the public. If between two nobles, there is no legal recourse for the wronged noble except to appeal to some higher noble.

Using life magic to coerce a commoner is punishable by an extremely painful death. Using life magic to coerce a lord is expected and the basis of feudal pacts. The stronger life mage is the better leader, as life magic is what makes the tribe strong and the game pleanty.

Magical Traditions:
The Tugnalians have two major magical traditions, Water magic and Life magic.

Every Tugnalian is able to freeze, melt, boil, condense, sublimate and otherwise change the physical state of water. Most have no special skill at shaping it beyond transforming it into easily shaped snow before refreezing it. Only the best and most studied water mages can make water move magically or magically keeping ice cold for long periods of time. Despite this, the Tugnali are excellent craftsmen when it comes to ice. Their boats are small icebergs, their pottery from hollow ice blocks, their food is frozen solid in storage and magically boiled before eaten, eliminating all use of fire. Wooden bows fire arrows of ice, children play with snowballs, and shape ice castles and ice sculptures from snow. The only reason their ice is not a vauluable trade good is because of it's tendency to melt if taken beyond their frozen homeland.

The nobility of Tugnali is based around the ability to influence emotions through Life magic. This is the secret to their taming of such a vast variety of beasts, their extraordinarily good catches of fish and hunting and nearly the entire trade economy of Tugnali. Most Tugnalians can calm and handle any tamed animal easily with Life magic, but most are unable to magically tame anything larger than a mouse. Anyone with such skill becomes rich and will quickly rise to become a member of the nobility if they desire. If not, they give all of their excess money to a noble, as to keep their wealth at a level socially acceptable for someone who is not a noble.

The nobles of Tugnali establish dominence by using Life magic to instill terror, admiration, feelings of love or loyalty in eachother in an attempt to make lesser nobles obey them. The result is a single king of the Tugnali who is an extremely powerful Life mage who magically influences the minds of all of the nobiltiy and massive herds of wildlife around his or her home city. Rank is decided by magically convincing the comptetion to agree that you are the highest ranking noble present.

In times of war, the Water mages of Tugnali prefer the direct approach: boiling eyeballs, freezing the blood or drowning foes by condensing water inside their lungs. Common people use arrows of ice and spears of ice, as they are cheap and easy to make. Their Life mages use their magic to make the Tugnali warriors into berserkers and to terrify the enemy. Even common Tugnali warriors can enter into a warrior's trance or give a magically unnerving glare.

Government:
The Tugnali have a two tiered caste system with radically different laws for each caste.

The first caste is that of the common people. They have suprisingly many rights, but little political authority. In this caste are the hunters, fishers, craftsmen, and anyone else having below a certain amount of wealth. If a commoner commits a crime, they are punished much less harshly than a member of the nobility, as they are simply less important and don't have their every action judged by the masses. They are entitled to a home and food, provided by the local noble and expect to occasionally receive small gifts from their noble on special dates such as births, their comming of age, weddings and deaths. If a noble is unable to provide these things, they are no longer entitled to be a member of that caste and are forced to return to being a commoner. If he refuses, the noble is killed or exiled.

The second caste is that of the Life Magic using nobles of the society. It is their duty to insure that their city remains prosperous and rich using life magic, to provide homes and food to the poor and to lavish gifts upon the populace. They are also expected to represent their people politically by swearing oaths to other nobles and having other nobles swear oaths to them. Though the title is nominally "Lord" there are an equal number of Ladys in the second caste. Nobles may own any amount of property and are publically encouraged to become as rich as possible, as to better provide for their people. A poor noble is a thing of shame for the Tungali under him or her.

There is a third level of government, not recoginzed as a caste by the law and formally in the first caste; the government approved water mages. These mages are the only ones allowed to melt ice within the city and control the size, shape and temprature of the ice cities. They are tasked with insuring that the nightmarish event of the city melting totally into water never occurs.

[Judging__Eagle]

I really like that arrangement for the Tugnali society.

Nobles are people who have Life Magic, and are supposed to make sure that the commoners have access to lots of animals to turn into trade goods. However they have no right to tell commoners what to do, or order them around. That's a very large difference between the way most societies organize themselves.

[norms29]

I'm not sure I get it, if nobility is defined by being past a certain point in magical power, why do the nobles, who are by definiton more powerful, put up with being leagally second class citizens?

[Grek]

They aren't. I should have made it more clear. They make the laws and are exempt from taxes. Normal citizens have a limited amount of stuff they can own above which their property gets taxed extremely heavily. Nobles keep everything they earn. Basically, it's like being the mayor, the head of the fire department and the owner of the factory that everyone works at. If you kill someone or bulldoze their house, it's a major deal, but otherwise life is sweet.

[norms29]

ok, but why (this is meant as a real question, not rhetorical) is there all this stuff where a noble who wrongs a commoner in some way is liable to much harsher punishment then a commoner who commits the same crime?

[Grek]

It's a matter of diet. Everyone in Tugnali eats seal blubber, fishes and fresh vension regularly. Unlike most groups, everyone gets a good share protein in Tugnali and the nobles aren't half a head taller and twice as buff as a peasant. This means that the peasants have alot more rights and protections than other peasants because if the peasants revolt, they actually stand a reasonable chance of winning. Factor in the inherent distrust and fear of someone with pseudo-mindcontrol powers going against society at large and you have a group of people who put some very strict limits on what their overlords can and cannot do. The nobles would much rather see some other noble get executed than face lynch mobs of peasants wanting to string them up.

[Username17]

ok, but why (this is meant as a real question, not rhetorical) is there all this stuff where a noble who wrongs a commoner in some way is liable to much harsher punishment then a commoner who commits the same crime?

The same reason that venture capitalists are liable for a company's losses or adults are subject to harsher punishment than are children. It's a backhanded oppression, but it's no less real. Commoners are treated as people who don't "know any better" by society. Which means that they get relatively indulged when they break the rules, but also that their input on any subject is unvalued.

A more extreme version can be found in Apartheid South Africa or British Imperial India. If the brown people committed a crime it might not even get investigated because the authorities simply did not care. You should see the statistics jump when Apartheid fell and they started actually recording and reporting crimes against Black people.

But the other part is noblesse oblige. The nobles have a reputation to maintain, which means that they may well feel that they have to cast out anyone who rocks the boat sufficiently to threaten the privilege of the class. Being harder on themselves in a very public way can be used as an excuse to become very rich day after day. Like how business men rant about how hard they worked to get to where they are.

-Username17