Zeměvčel Culture
The Zeměvčel (pronounced: zehm-ye-v-chell) otherwise also referred to as Zemev, or Praven by the Leutz-Vixe and Wirtem Ailor, are an Ailor Culture that has a long history that pre-dates the Regalian Empire. Zeměvčel as a name means "Country of Bees", which refers to the importance of apiary culture in their historical traditions and architecture. The Zeměvčel is a fairly isolated Culture, having lived in the area around the region of Praag for centuries, eventually becoming incorporated into the Regalian Empire as the Wirtemcaller Kingdom was integrated. The Zeměvčel are one of the smaller population numbers in the Empire, but they have had a large impact on agriculture, architecture, and literature across the Empire.
Origins
Like with any Pre-Empire Culture, the Zeměvčel has no clear point of origin since these people lived in the valleys surrounding Praag for centuries before even the Regalian Kingdom's history. The Zeměvčel Culture is generally referred to as "West-Oltan", meaning they are distantly related to the Oltaran people in Eastwynd (and by consequence the Krainivaya, though their languages are not mutually intelligible), of which the Regalian Empire knows near nothing about, who are referred to as "East-Oltan". How the Zeměvčel people came to the Archipelago is unclear, though modern research has indicated some sort of mass-migration from Eastwynd over 3000 years ago, when all these peoples did not yet have a written scripture. For much of recorded history, the Zeměvčel were ruled by Wirtemcaller lords in the Wirtemcaller Kingdom, which was independent from the Regalian Kingdom and later Empire for quite some time. The Wirtemcaller lords spoke Wirtem, while the local Zeměvčel people spoke Český (or, written as Cesk for ease of use in-game). Many of the Zeměvčel people formed the poor peasant levies summoned by the Wirtem lords when this Kingdom was integrated into the Regalian Empire, and formed the cannon fodder in the war against the Velheim people which has left some moderate resentment among the Zeměvčel people towards both the Wirtem lords, and their Velheim enemies. In more recent history, the Praag and surrounding duchies were integrated into the Leutz-Vixe dominated Osteiermark region, replacing the Wirtem lords with Leutz-Vixe ones. Though the Leutz still do not speak Cesk, they have started treating the locals better than their Wirtem lords did before them.
Religion
In ages past, the Zeměvčel people followed a religion called the Raná Bohyně, or the Early Goddess. From what little remains in written form and folklore stories, this faith was centered around the idea of a spring goddess who would bring her bounty and gifts to the people during spring, grow weary in summer, fall into a melancholy in autumn, and slept in winter, only to be reborn each year with the first rains of spring. This religion was quickly abandoned for Unionism, as Unionist preachers were exceptionally successful in converting the local population, accepting Unionism faster than even the Wirtem hinterlands (who are known for their piety in the modern era). While the Zeměvčel accepted Unionism quickly, many old pagan habits from their Early Goddess still remain, such as the celebrations of spring, the heralding of spring festival, and a heavy domination of floral and easter-themed patterns in their clothing. The Zeměvčel people had an early "reformer" regarding the structure of the Unionist clergy named Jannes Husinek, preaching for more asceticism among the priests and more critical interrogation of the religious right of interpretation. Jannes Husinek was however never able to form a proper schism, as the Leutz nobility conspired against him and had him burned at the pyre for blasphemy against the faith. In modern times, the Zeměvčel remain sympathetic to Unionism despite this event, with pagan elements in local festival traditions. A very important aspect of Zeměvčel religious expression is the Kralinec Proze. For nationalist and personal reasons, the Zeměvčel people refuse to listen to preaching of the Creed in any language but their own. The Kralinec Proze is a beautifully and poetically translated version of the common preaching and religious texts from the Creed entirely in Cesk.
Customs and Traditions
Apiary Culture
The elephant in the room when examining the Zeměvčel culture is their heavy emphasis on bee cultivation. Every Zeměvčel village has an apiarist workshop where the finest hives are produced, and lessons are taught to the local villagers on how to create the best conditions for bees to thrive in their area. The Zeměvčel have perfected apiary symbiosis, mixing traditional agricultural practices with bee keeping in the area to produce the productivity of their farms. While their lands have only recently been experimenting with the production of higher yield food crops, Praag and surrounding areas are known for their extremely high yield of rapeseed oil and mustard plant cultivation. Bees as a symbol however go much further than just agriculture, with apitherapy being very common among the Zeměvčel people, who believe the buzzing and droning of bees in their hive has healing properties. The application of apitherapy involves spending time in a cabin with beehives built around it, producing a constant buzzing sound, as well as the consumption of high quality bee honey with nearly everything that is eaten. The Zeměvčel are (unsurprisingly) also excellent candle makers, producing a high quantity and quality of beeswax, producing some of the Empire's most coveted scented candles, combining the many flowers locally grown with the bees wax and oils extracted from their crops. Finally, bee-structures are also very common in Zeměvčel architecture, with the large vaulted ceilings featuring comb-like structures to mimic the interior of a beehive.
Black Baroque
The Zeměvčel people are known for the cultivation of an architectural style called the Black Baroque, which is closely related to standard Baroque produced by the Leutz-Vixe people. In contrast to this style however, Black Baroque appears to have elements of Gothic incorporated, using less explosive colors in favor of darker stone materials, and refraining from using gold as an architectural element. Many of the buildings in the regional capital of the Zeměvčel people, Praag, with notably the large Unionist Temples in this city being excellent examples of the almost volcanic-dark stonework. Zeměvčel have as such gained a reputation of being excellent stone masons and sculptors, cutting intense detailing and dramatic shapes in otherwise very hard rock. Where-as most of the statue work in the Regalian Empire uses white stones, Zeměvčel sculptures are often made of black basalt and polished dark marble. Black Marble has become more popular in Regalia as of recent as a counter-movement to the excessive opulence of Ithanian/Leutz Baroque, being instead referred to as the "High-Culture Architecture style of choice, but with all the unnecessary paint layers removed".
Royal Librarians
Another major point of pride among the Zeměvčel is their public library availability, and the Royal Librarians. Since the incorporation of the Zeměvčel lands into the Regalian Empire, every single Royal Librarian, and indeed every single person working at the Regalian State Archives, has been a person of Zeměvčel descent. The Zeměvčel have shown a cultural affinity to memorizing archive locations, book sorting orders, and general archive availability. While the rest of Osteiermark certainly has a higher standard of education, the Empire's general education is mostly aimed at active education (the use of tutors and teachers) towards mostly the rich. The Zeměvčel however do this the other way around, creating so-called Čtenářský Soud (Court of Reading) buildings in nearly every village, no matter how small. These public libraries are accessible to all, even the poorest of the poor, as maintenance of these buildings is considered a village-wide effort, while books are usually bought outside of the locale, and brought in to help the locals understand more of the outside world. While most regional peasants across the Empire have a very narrow world-view, the Zeměvčel people are incredibly well-read, and have a good imagination of the wider world they exist in, even if they rarely interact with it. While an Anglian peasant may never have even seen a Fin'ullen, a Zeměvčel person can recite most of the names of the Faiaal Kingdoms, and even might know the name and ongoing legacy of the current Prince of Ilha Faiaal. Public access to reading material is incredibly important to the Zeměvčel people, so much so that burning or damaging any written materials is considered a great taboo in their culture. The importance of Zeměvčel literature and novel writing tradition also cannot be understated. Especially Praag is considered a center of Regalian literary culture, with many of its Kaffee houses being vibrant places where novelists discuss their future writing plans and styles, to come up with new ideas. Zeměvčel books are considered very "worldly" as their authors are usually not beholden to a narrow cultural view of the world, but know a lot about the world in general, and are as such able to project very accurate descriptions of places and people they have never been to or met. Zeměvčel philosophy is also become a major hotspot, particularly the discussion of the right of nobility and the self-determination of individual cultures to chart their own course within the Empire. The inevitable topic that gets discussed is how the Zeměvčel lands for most of their history have been controlled by foreign nobility who treat their lands mostly like colonies to their more urbanized homeland. Even in the modern era, while the Leutz people are more tolerant and kind to their Zeměvčel subjects, the matter of creating a Zeměvčel nobility and ruling class is frequently discussed, with long treatises on the ethics of cultural domination and the right of self determination within the frame of the Empire's Federation pouring out of Praag.
Magical Beer
The Zeměvčel are known for their fondness of beer. While their beer is never considered of particularly high quality, it is not the drink itself that has value, but rather the social surroundings of them. Every Čtenářský Soud (public library) in a village, has an adjacent Hostinec (guest-place) where only beer is served. As soon as a person sits down, they are immediately served a beer without even asking, first beer always being free, every beer after that being tallied for payment. It is very common for visitors of the library to take a book to the Hostinec, and read it by a comfortable fire. The fervent beer drinking occasionally leads to vibrant bar fights, but generally speaking a Hostinec is considered a place of great social activity, from games to singing to public discussions about ongoing events in the world. It should be noted that "Magical Beer" refers to the act of the Beer being served directly to the table without asking, not particularly because any Magic is involved. The Zeměvčel people are in fact fairly opposed to Magic, and follow the Dogmatic Unionist and near-Wirtem line on Magic usage. Despite this, magical-gifted children are usually sent to the Magical School in Vultaro, not purged of their connection to Magic.
Sports and Leisure
Zeměvčel sports involve much of the outside countryside. Common are horse-riding and hiking. The lands in which the Zeměvčel people mostly live are valleys surrounded by the Morveten mountains and the Böhmer Walds close to Nordmark. As such, many of the Zeměvčel sports involve rock-climbing, mountaineering, hiking, or general countryside walking. Something not quite classified as a sport is the act of foraging. The Zeměvčel (largely because large stretches of untouched nature around them) are excellent foragers in the forests. While most of the Regalian Archipelago relies on urbanized dietary habits brought about with bread, the Zeměvčel very much eat from the land, having a diet consisting of nuts, mushrooms, honey, wild-game, and fish from the rivers. Whole families consider the act of going out foraging in the forest, and bringing back their bounty and turning it into a large stew a good day spent.
Music and Fashion
Zeměvčel music can best be described as having a good-tempo, and making use of simple instruments like a banjo, viola, and some improvised drums. This music is always accompanied by singing, usually with an element of comedy. Music is often played at the village Hostinec, with themes rotating from celebrations of spring, love, tales of Zeměvčel warriors during the Skagger Wars, but all of them with some sort of comedic twist, because a good Zeměvčel song is one that causes both awe at the skill of the singer, and laughs at the subtle comedy hidden in the lyrics. Zeměvčel fashion is somewhat similar in style to the Wirtem and Leutz peasant garb for both men and women. What sets Zeměvčel fashion apart however is their heavy reliance on floral pattern embroidery and print on their clothing, and abundance of color. While a Wirtem vest might be made of entirely black velvet, the Zeměvčel embroid white, red, and green flowers on them to such a degree that most of the black velvet is covered with colorful floral patterns. Common headwear for men are the felt cone-shaped hats, and white cotton veil for women, thought he richer peasants and upper classes usually wear Leutz Vixe clothing to fit in with the aristocracy.
Language & Naming
The Zeměvčel people speak Český (or, written as Cesk for ease of use in-game) which is based on real-world Czech. The usage of Common is however incredibly important to the Zeměvčel people for a multitude of reasons. Most notably, books brought to their local libraries tend to be written in Common, which is the most common writing language for instruction books and historical accounts. Secondly, being always ruled by nobility from either Wirtem or Leutz descent who do not speak Cesk, Common has become a useful lingua franca to be able to communicate between the social classes. A notable aspect about the Cesk language, is the habit of Zeměvčel people to baby-talk persons they hold in esteem or are fond of. It is possible to figure out exactly how much a Zeměvčel person likes another person, depending on what name they use, the full birth name, or a nickname shortened version. Zeměvčel names are based on real-life Czech names also, though unlike other Ailor Cultures, there is no such thing as a unisex name in the Cesk language.
Other Cultural Quirks
- The Zeměvčel people rarely ever say no when someone requests something from them. Uvidíme and można (We will see, and Maybe respectively) are common responses to being invited to a party, or being asked to help fix someone's cart. The Zeměvčel people like keeping their options open, and never fully committing to something so they can't be blamed if they don't show up.
- Self Reliance within the family home is very important for the Zeměvčel people. While specialist carpenters exist, most Zeměvčel family homes are built by members of their own family. For most problems, the Zeměvčel people usually rely on themselves first before asking for help from friends, before finally swallowing their pride and asking their liege-lord for assistance. This comes from a long history of neglect by the Wirtem/Leutz lords who often disregarded the state of their tenant farms, and let the peasants resolve their problems themselves.
- The Zeměvčel people often speak with a comedic modesty about things. For example, the largest mountains around Osteiermark are called the Genevaud Alps, massive mountains. The Zeměvčel people refer to a particular region north as Praag as the Praag Alps, disregarding the fact that it is just a small hill. Similarly, they would refer to a bag of coins as a Treasury or gold hoard, or a single ham sandwich as a feast. This is mostly a rejection movement of the self-styled exceptionalism elsewhere across the Empire, with Zeměvčel people preferring to "be normal, you're already crazy/unique enough as you are).
- Every family has their own brand of Yoghurt. Every household knows how to make Yoghurt. The Zeměvčel people are not particularly known for their Yoghurt like the Aetosians are, but the common presence of Yoghurt is unique about them.
- Every Zeměvčel family owns a Chata, or a cabin in the Morveten Mountains. Among the Zeměvčel people, their communal and socially active lifestyle can sometimes become a bit too much, and they retreat into the Morveten Mountains to the many cabins that are built there-in. Cabins are usually shared between siblings and stocked with long-lasting food supplies.
- Discussing work, while not at a workplace, is considered taboo among the Zeměvčel people. After all, why would one talk about work while not actually working?
- Wearing shoes in the house is strictly forbidden in every household. The outside is considered "dirty", while the inside has to remain "clean". The Zeměvčel are very insistent that guests take their shoes off outside the door before stepping in.
- The Zeměvčel have a dark sense of humor, perhaps the only Culture to do so in the Regalian Archipelago. They frequently make fun of very serious things that are almost borderline cultural trauma. For example, it is quite common for the Zeměvčel people to joke about the burnings of Jannes Husinec and other religious reformers as "a public barbeque", while serious floods or excessive rainfall "sure didn't leave anyone thirsty".
- To accept something immediately is considered rude in Zeměvčel culture. For example if you are being given a free honeybun, it is common to refuse at least 3 times, before accepting finally. Accepting without refusing several times is considered greedy, though inversely, Zeměvčel people can also come across as very pushy because they expect people to refuse a couple of times, and become confused after the 7th time being refused.
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