The World of San'Dora

Var
History	Nations	Characters
Castes	Culture	Clans

Varic Culture

There are Twelve Clans of Var, with many subfamilies spread across the Varholds, though not all are represented in each settlement. Commonly a Varhold will have between five and eight Clans present, though a few larger Varholds have all or almost all of the Clans represented. Additionally, it is not completely unheard of for a few members of a Clan to exist in a Hold without an official presence of their Clan as a whole.

Each Varhold is slightly different, but over all they share many similarities. Each Varhold is led by a Terrenbrenin,and there are a number of traditional offices or statuses that are observed as well as describind in the Caste section.

INTER-CLAN RELATIONSHIPS

Each Clan has its own perceptions of other Clans, and this can vary as well from Varhold to Varhold. However the Var do not tolerate open conflict or outright backstabbing among themselves.

CLAN MEMBERSHIP

A Var is always of the Clan that they were born into. When a Var is born to parents from two Clans the Var is of the Clan of the parent with the same gender; thus a male is of the father's Clan and a daughter of the mother's. It is not possible to change Clans.

RESIDENCE

The vast majority of Var reside in the Varhold they were born in, but some travel to other Varholds or rarely set out to found a new colony. Some Var prefer to live away from the Var; typically these Var have little family among the Var, have bonded with non-Var, and choose to remain with their non-Var friends. This can be a sad but rewarding experience for a Var; sad because they are usually without Varic companionship, and rewarding because they often experience rich friendships with their comrades.

INTRA-CLAN RELATIONSHIPS

Members of the same Clan living in different Varholds are like distant cousins. Similar, but distinct. The dishonor or glory of Clanmembers from another Varhold have very little bearing on the Clansmen of another Varhold.

Within the same Varhold, all members of the same Clan are expected to look out for one another and present as unified a face as possible.

COMMERCE

The Var are reclusive, but highly dependent on tradegoods. Even the Var can't eat rock and steel. Var are also greedy, and jealously guard their rights. This has lead to an interesting economy.

PROPERTY

All Var may own property and do with it what they will. Similarly, all Var own all their own things and are very protective of their possessions. Their greedy nature ensures that they value things highly and often times tend to be hoarders and pack-rats.

SLAVES

The Var do not keep Slaves. Their own history makes them intrinsically averse to the very idea.

TRAVEL

All Var may come and go as they please. All Var have a single flat community tax that they must pay to their Varhold each year, but beyond that they are free to do whatever they can afford to do.

TAXES

All Varholds have a single, common community tax, called a Trethi, that all must pay. If a Var is out of the Varhold for an extended period, their relatives pay for them, or else the amount in arrears is collected upon the return of the Var.

TRADE

Among the Var's greatest commodity is the unique steel alloy only they know the crafting of, called Durocaled (dur-OCK-ahled). Items made of Durocaled have +2 DEF more than normal Steel and weigh the same.

The primary exports for Varholds are metalgoods of all sorts, cut gems, coal, and in some places salt.

The primary imports for Varholds are food and uncut cloth.

TIME

The Var organize their years, called a Blywddyn (BLUE-thin) into four 90 day "months" called Tymhorau (TIM-oroh). The four Tymhorau are:

Oerprydd (OWER-preeth; late winter)
Tarprydd (TER-preeth; spring)
Hafprydd (HOFF-preeth; summer)
Difprydd (DEF-preeth; early winter)

Sometimes the "-prydd" suffix is left off, but this is considered cheeky by more traditional Var.

The Var dont wory about weeks overly much, having nine 10-day weeks per Tymhorau, and refer to them literally by number and Tymhorau, so the third week of Hafprdd for example.

They call days Dydd (DITHH).

WORSHIP

The Var worship the Earth, which they call Priddyn (PRITH-een). Some Var are able to work a form of Earth-oriented Divine magic. The priests of Priddyn are called the Carreg Iachawr (CARE-egg ee-OCK-ower), and enjoy a revered status among the Var.

The Var worship in specially consecrated shrines, usually deep in the earth, and made of natural stone. There are no particular times or special days of worship, and the Var believe that one must be properly respectful of the Earth all days equally.

The Var know that they were created by the Haelfinan to be servants, but their lore says that in the Var's early days of servitude the spirit of the Earth that they worked made itself known to them via dreams and portents and accepted them as her chosen children.

PRIDRIGGHU

The average Var carries some token made of rock, usually (or ideally) carved from the Priddyn-shrine of their Varhold. These tokens are called Priddrigghu (prith-RIG-gee), and often (but not always) bring good luck.

Priddrigghu: 1d6 Luck, IIF (Special Rock Token; -1/4); Real Cost: 4 points.

DEATH

The Var believe that when they die their souls go to the heart of Priddyn to become part of the inner fires that fuel the heat of the world, the very life-blood of the Earth. Thus, when they die they prefer for their remains to be burned as a symbolic link to the reforging of their soul and baring that to be interred, but dont obsess over it. They believe that as soon as they die their spirits are called home and that their bodies are just empty scabbards at that point.

The Var do not practice resurrection magics; their form of Nature Magic does not possess the capacity to manipulate life forces once they have left the Material Plane, though the Var believe that this is because Priddyn will not turn away a soul that has come to her.

MOTIVATION AND CHARACTER

The guiding principle of the Var is that each Var is like a ingot of iron that must be forged by those who raise them. The Var have relatively few children, and thus take the rearing of each child very seriously. Every adult has a responsibility to educate and hone every child, and every child has the responsibility to learn from their elders. Thus the Var by and large respect their elders and have an ingrained respect for authority.

FAMILIAL HONOR

Along the same lines family honor is of the utmost importance, and the actions of a Var reflects on his family members. Thus, Var tend to think carefully before doing anything risky or outside the norm, not because they are afraid but because they loath to shame their families' honor. Conversely, Var are almost too eager to do things that will lead to more honor for their family, seemingly almost suicidally preparred to face dangers to earn glory.

RELATIONS WITH OTHERS

The Var tend to be isolationist, gruff to outsiders, traditionalist, and generally unfriendly. However they are also highly honorable and though greedy and miserly they are honest. They also never fail to pay a debt. Also, once a Var does make a friend, they do not differentiate between that friend and their closest family member; they are unswervingly loyal to that person.

This extreme level of attachment is part of an intended control mechanism designed into the Var by the Haelfinan, with the intent that the Var would naturally be beholden to their Haelfinan masters and be utterly loyal to them.

In reality, the Var know of this weakness of theirs, and have developed their general gruffness as a defense against it; in other words they become deliberately standoffish to help prevent themselves from accidentally becoming bonded to others.