Navarr culture and customs

Vows

The Navarr mark vows, oaths and promises with a public signal of their intent and commitment. The more enduring the commitment, the more permanent the marks. War-paint is applied before a battle, henna tattoos are often used for agreements that last a few days or more. Permanent pledges or those that will take years to complete are usually marked with tattoos or more rarely with brands. The Navarr believe that the marks help hold a person to their pledge, but they also make it easier for others to identify those who have sworn themselves to a given role or cause (as discussed in Hearth Magic).

The Great Dance

The central philosophy of the Navarri is the idea that life is a Great Dance in which all humankind is engaged. Reincarnation is central to this belief - to the Navarri the dead are simply resting for a while before they resume their place. Some may lead, some may follow; but the Dance is better for everyone when the dancers have the right partners at the right time and place. Many Navarri try to help people find their place and their partners in the Great Dance.

The Great Dance underpins Navarri philosophy, they believe everyone has a place and a time for them in the Dance, but some need help to find that place. Another belief is that people who find their perfect partner in the Dance are destined to find that partner again and again each time they are born. A partner may not always be a lover, it could be a sibling or simply a close friend. What matters is that people who do not feel ‘right’ where they are should be encouraged to travel to find a new place in the Great Dance, a chance to find a place they will belong where their partners will be right for them.

The Navarri are proud of the stories that they have woven within the Great Dance, and recount old tales and build new ones. Old stories are retold in new ways – the core of the story will remain the same, but the decoration will change. Some storytellers will use items to focus on the core of the story – often a cup, stick, or sword, adorned with symbols that mark the key waypoints of the tale. Many stories focus on the resourcefulness, cunning, guile and self-sacrifice shown by Navarri in the defeat of those that threaten the Empire. Other stories are drawn from vague memories of the time before the cities fell.

Community

The Navarri are a communal people. A common Navarr philosophy is that wealth is measured in the number of allies who are prepared to fight for you, not the coins in your pocket. The Navarri expect everyone to work in the best interest of their Striding or Steading and most have little interest in personal wealth or success. Trade is a means of making allies and ensuring that people have the things they need rather than a means to enrich themselves or their Striding. The Navarri are well aware of the value of money and don’t avoid its acquisition, it’s just that most of them count allies as considerably more valuable.

Many things are kept communally, a wagon or an oxen that is the possession of the whole Striding, or a palisade which protects a Steading which is regarded as everyone’s responsibility to maintain. Despite or perhaps because of this, the Navarri are acutely mindful of those possessions which are owned by individuals and they are careful to respect them. Thieves who steal from the Steading or Striding are considered little better than traitors, thieves who steal from others are considered a dangerous menace that threatens the good standing of the Navarri.

Celebrations and Milestones

The Navarr have a long tradition of marking important moments in their lives with celebrations. Usually these take the form of a shared meal followed by dancing, drinking and gaming. Marking important times strengthens the links between members of a community - especially an extended community such as the Navarr possess. Three important celebrations observed by the majority of the Navarr are Unburdening, Brinding and Welcoming.

Unburdening

Navarr Stridings and Steadings are not fixed – they shift and change over time, as people die, retire or move from one to another, perhaps due to a love-match or to a desire to see other climes. When an individual decides to leave a Steading to join a Striding (or even just to travel to another Steading), the event is celebrated with a simple feast in which they ceremonially burn a list describing the belongings they are leaving behind. This symbolises an intent to give up ownership, and comes with a general assumption that these possessions can be claimed by or redistributed among the Navarr who remain behind. The Navarri are far too pragmatic to burn valuable goods, but the ceremony helps people to let go of the things they do not need.

When an individual leaves a Striding to join a Steading, a similar feast is prepared. The members of the Steading that is accepting them presents them with practical gifts for their new, fixed home, and their former Striding offers them mementoes of the journeys they've shared together.

A Navarr may also hold a Departure celebration when they are undergoing a significant life-change, or when they feel burdened by their past - the burning of a list of grievances, for example, may form the basis of a ceremony where two individuals put aside past rivalries.

Binding

When a child enters adulthood they undergo the Binding. The Egregore Liaven mingles its blood with the celebrants, and each is marked on the forehead with that mixed blood. Accompanied by a war-band, the Navarri hunt for a gift to be given back to Liaven - symbollically representing the Navarr nation. This usually means an expedition into a Vallorn-infected forest. The Binding reminds the new adult that wherever they go they are part of the Navarr, and the venture against the Vallorn reminds them of their ultimate purpose - to destroy the Vallorn and reclaim their cities. Those that die during the Binding are lauded by the Navarri and their names make up many war-chants.

This ceremony is also used when an adult from outside the Navarr wishes to become one of them.

The Welcoming

Conscious of the passage of the seasons, the Navarr Stridings congregate at festival times, either together or at the Steadings. The Navarri celebrate the turning of all the seasons but the birth of a new spring and the end of the harsh winter that makes travelling difficult is their major festival. This grand celebration, the Welcoming, is a time for revelry, feasting, raucous music and wild dancing. It is also traditionally a time for making a new start, abandoning grudges and putting aside past failures to concentrate on the possibilities of a new year.

Funerals

In death, what remains are the memories of your deeds in the minds of your partners in the Great Dance. The Stridings commit bodies to simple cairns, the Steadings use a traditional glade where the bodies are laid out in the forest. Such glades are rarely troubled by scavengers or carrion-eaters, and the bodies are simply left undisturbed to moulder.

A Striding may decide to transport a corpse to a Steading before performing a funeral, but there is also a custom where the friends of the deceased make a pilgrimage to a corpse-glade to hang a reminder or momento of their fallen comrade among the branches.