Dawn culture and customs
The Test of Mettle
The Imperial citizenship tests were created by the Dawnish but the Test of Mettle remains unique to Dawn. The test exists to judge who is glorious enough to join the ranks of the nobility. Passing a noble house's test makes the applicant part of that house. Consequently it is almost impossible to pass the test unless the noble house that is judging you is amenable to your success. Dawn legends are full of tales of heroic individuals passing the tests against such odds but the reality is usually more prosaic.
Any Imperial Citizen is eligible to attempt the Test of Mettle and most scions of noble houses attempt it. In theory any yeoman child can take the test, a fact of which the Dawnish are inordinately proud. In practice, while the rewards for success are high, the tests are difficult to pass without the support that an upbringing in a noble house provides. The tests are difficult even for noble children and groups will often work together to help each other pass their test.
Ignominy befalls those who attempt the test and fail, whether yeoman or noble born and the test is difficult to pass and often dangerous, not least because many Dawn children take the view that you should pass the test or die trying. For this reason most tests are deliberately open-ended, giving the aspirant as much time as is needed to prove their worth.
Heraldry
Every Noble House has its own unique heraldry. On the field, in camp and decorating every castle and manor house in Dawn is their distinctive and glowing heraldry, woven and embellished by the witches of the weaver cabals. Any noble of the House is entitled to bear its arms on their surcote and shield, and when the House marches to war they do so under their banner. Yeomanry require a noble houses permission to bear their arms, but most nobles prefer their retainers to be dressed in their colours, the better to emphasize the glory and majesty of their house.
Although knights-errant are not technically noble, they are permitted to carry the majestic royal blue national banner, displaying a blazing golden sun and to display the device on their arms. For this reason, nobles who wish to conceal their identity, or conceal their house affiliations sometimes choose to present themselves using Dawn's heraldry rather than their own.
Dawnish heraldry favours bold colours, high contrast stripes and chevrons and fantastical beasts as devices. Very complex heraldry with multiple divisions and colours is generally avoided as confusing and less splendid then a simpler but more striking design.
On the rare occasions when a noble is stripped of rank and exiled from their House, they are usually publically stripped of their heraldry, their shield is defaced and their name struck from the House's records. In some Houses they are given a cloak or surcote in dull brown undyed cloth as a mark of shame before they are driven out.
Fostering and Adoption
Before Imperial rule forbade war between the houses, it was commonplace for a defeated noble to swear oaths of fealty or good intention. To ensure these oaths were kept, all the noble's children would be taken as hostages. To avoid this fate, a noble would send every second child to be raised in the houses of friends and allies. Over time it became increasingly common for powerful nobles to adopt talented children into their own family.
This custom continued after the Empire brought peace to Dawn so that now children passed over at birth, are raised as full members of the noble house that adopts them. Such children have the same rights and responsibilities as their siblings who are born into the house; the Dawn ideal is that an Earl should treat all the members of their house as if they were of the same blood. Tawdry tales of Earls who fall short of this ideal are common, but it is not unusual for an adopted noble to become Earl of a house.
Many children serve as pages. Dawnish nobles are aware of the responsibility and honour done them by a page - it is a chance for them to shape the heroes of tomorrow, and not to be taken lightly. Mistreating a page, or treating them as a servant, is a good way to earn the ire not only of the pages' parent, but also of the rest of the noble house.
It is possible, though rare for yeoman children to be adopted by a noble family. occasionally it occurs because a child catches the eye of a noble, impressing them with their potential, but usually this is done as an act of gratitude towards a parent by a powerful noble. A common tale in Dawn concerns a noble whose loyal retainer does them a great service, and the noble rewards them by adopting their child - after all, there is little advantage in adoption of an aged retainer to either party.
Duelling
The Dawn tradition of trial by combat was replaced by Imperial trial when Dawn joined the Empire. However, its relic remains in the form of honour duels, when the word of a noble has been called into question. Duels, officially fought to submission, are used to settle matters of honour and some civil disputes. Most nobles who are not Knights, will have a Knight represent them in a honour duel.
In Dawn, duels are normally conducted between fully armoured Knights, using sword and shield. Where neither party is a Knight, then they may choose to conduct a duels in other ways such as contests of skill or talent. Challenges against people of other Nations are unusual, with little expectation that they will be accepted. Facing such a challenge is a simple way for a foreigner to impress the Dawn however, especially if you can win.
A duel between members of a noble house is the only way for a noble to be ejected from the house. Such duels are rare for the challenger risks the same fate as the person they challenge, the loser is stripped of their nobility and reduced to the status of yeoman. Such a fate is almost irreversible, it is exceptionally rare for another house to allow a former noble to join, especially if they simply chose to leave their former house. They must take a second Test of Mettle to prove themselves and such tests are fatally difficult, the only way for the former noble to remove the stain of dishonour and disloyalty.
Marriage in the Noble Houses
Between yeomen, marriage is generally a matter of two individuals going before a noble and asking them to bless their union. All nobles have the right to bless a marriage, and in Dawn it is considered to have the same weight as a binding contract elsewhere. Both spouses must consent to the union verbally three times before two witnesses, but nothing else is required. A third witness, in the form of a troubadour, is often included as a matter of course but is not required, and while the troubadour may perform a religious ceremony after the wedding they are not involved in the actual union.
Things are not so simple when nobles marry.
Marriage brings yet another challenge for the Dawn nobility. The suitor must put their troth, to the house of their intended. The Earl of the house must set the suitor a test of their choosing, called a Test of Ardour. A request for marriage, like a request for a Test of Mettle may not be refused. If the suitor succeeds then they marry their intended, who will join the suitor's house. If the suitor fails then the house may deny the marriage or else allow it to continue but the suitor must then join the spouse's house.
In theory such a troth can be put to a house without the understanding of the man or woman that the suitor seeks to wed. In practice such behaviour is more the stuff of legend than reality. A marriage test that appears fatally difficult is a sure sign of an unwanted affection. More commonly noble lovers conspire to decide whose Earl can be persuaded to set the easier test.
Because of the unusual nature of a Dawn house, it is possible and legal for a woman to marry a brother or other close relation. Such unions are legal, but the lovers are expected to remain chaste, to avoid scandal. Those who do are usually rewarded with children from other houses to adopt, while those who don't are shunned and their children are often set impossible tests.
Perversely it is not legal for members of the same house to marry, regardless of whether they are born into the house or adopted. This seems strange to outsiders but the Dawnish believe that the house is the family, that the relationship with an adopted brother or sister is as important as that with a biological sibling. For a house to openly treat their biological children differently to their adopted children brings shame to all.
Because of the legal prohibition preventing marriage between members of a house, those who fall in love have few options. They can elope and leave Dawn or else adopt a chaste relationship. Courting and public displays of affection, appropriate for any inhabitant Dawn are allowed, but nothing more. Illegitimate children bring shame on both parents equally, they are never permitted to join their mother's house and are usually adopted by a loyal yeoman.
In theory a noble may marry a yeoman, but the yeoman is not ennobled by the marriage and such unions are rare and difficult as a result. Dalliances between the nobility and yeomanry are frowned upon, it is beneath the status of a noble to love one who has not proved themselves. Tales of yeomen inspired by love to pass the Test of Mettle are a common legend however.
Divorce is not officially recognized in Dawn. Two individuals may separate, but they remain members of the same noble house and no other noble house will accept a request for marriage from a Dawn noble while their spouse still lives. The nobility of Dawn demand adherence to the highest ideals of nobility, those who want a simple life of pleasantries should remain yeomen.
Funerals and Births
Funerals are sombre occasions in Dawn, accompanied by a period of public mourning for friends and relatives. A Dawnish funeral often represents a display of grief that may appear shocking or even insincere to an onlooker. Grief may appear like anger to someone who is not from Dawn, an outpouring of passionate despair that a loved one has departed the mortal world. After the funeral itself, the friends and relatives of the departed celebrate the return of the soul to the wheel, and tell great tales of the dead to persuade the hand of destiny to speed the hero’s return, but they do so in the knowledge that the parting of death is something tragic, not something commonplace.
After death, the body is normally interred in a grave, usually marked by flowering plants or trees. Where several people die at once, such as in the aftermath of a battle, a barrow mound may be raised. Graves in Dawn are generally well tended by surviving relatives, and as memory fades they are slowly forgotten. The graves of heroes, however, often become sites of pilgrimage for those inspried by their tales, who also ensure that the site is tended. Several great heroes are interred in the marble tombs of the Necropolis in Highguard, but this is not commonplace. In a nation of glorious heroes, it requires something special for the priests to request that a body be interred in the necropolis to serve as an inspiration to the entire Empire.
Similarly there is a tradition of visiting expectant mothers and telling tales of great heroes, to awaken the heroism of the unborn baby’s past lives. There is a folk belief that an unborn child has a close connection to the Labyrinth that may persist for up to a year after birth, and if a baby consistently seems to "react" to certain tales, it is taken as a sign that the child may be a reincarnation of one of the characters in that tale. The Imperial Synod does not endorse this belief, but it does not prevent the tradition remaining popular.