Pangui Society

The average Nipangui is a commoner, whether farmer of beans, wheat, wild rice (dry cultivated) in the valleys and terraces, fisher of rivers or lagoons, mercenary, soldier, or an artisan or shopkeeper in the myriad cities which dot the coast. In his features, he differs substantially from Arangothians, Alesians, Berjeron, or even the mysterious men on the far sides of the northern ice-fields, his skin often being coppery with oriental eyes, thick eyebrows, and black hair. He tends to be shorter than westerners, and his features broader.

All the varying classes wear most often a variation of the kimono, made of various materials, though all are tightly knit to protect against the fierce and cold winds. Underneath the kimono, except in the few humid months of summer, thick wool is worn from ankle to neck. The current fashion sees the outer kimono in solid, often dark colours, while the woolen innerwear is brightly colorful and ornately patterned. While it is considered gauche to wear too many symbols or designs on the body of one’s kimono, especially the front, the sleeves and backs often bear myriad symbols, some simply aesthetic and some identifying the various societies to which the wearer belongs.

It is a function of Nipangui society that nearly every citizen belongs to at least one ‘society’ and often over a dozen. The most simple and basic is a common burial society, whose members pool money and resources to ensure that each has a proper funeral. Societies rise in complexity and purpose through the social strata, including neighbourhood associations, religious parishes, investment groups, artisan guilds, and all the way up to the caste system which defines much of the islanders’ lives.

Social Castes

The Lower Caste

In Nipangu, even wealthy merchants count towards the Common caste, and are not very well respected among the various levels of society for their dishonest pandering and greed. In fact, Nipangui men are not even normally allowed to speak of economic or monetary matters in public, that being left to women. This does represent some inequality in the unwillingness to besmirch a man’s name, but women are generally considered shrewder and more adept at the conversational arts than men in any case.

The commoners’ lot is similar to that in the west: the primary producers and artisans of life, those generally without great lineage (which often means great wealth) and, of course, that section which composes the vast majority of the population. They wear no identifying marker of caste in their sashes as the others do, but this lack itself is a symbol in itself of common origins.

At the Common level, it is generally very difficult to escape one’s caste. Marriage can lead to a lower caste, but not generally to a higher one. This changes in the middle castes. The primary escape for Commoners, and one shared by all other human castes is the entering into one of those groups ‘outside’ castes, such as the Priesthood or the ‘Gardeners.’ (see below)

The Middle Castes

Above the common caste are the Noble Castes, those of the Scholarly and the Samurai.

The smallest section of society is that of the scholars. Scholars are identified apart from society’s other strata by a small, elaborately decorated writing box worn from the kimono’s sash, containing pens, inks and small bits of paper. Scholars may choose from a number of career paths, including librarians, civil officials, teachers, scribes, or a simple life of philosophy and sagacity.

Mobility is much more possible between the Scholars and Warriors than between any other groups. Children of either order who are not fit for their family’s calling, or do not enjoy it, are able to be adopted into willing families of the other. Elaborate balls are held several times a year in which Noble families may interact and might find suitable adoptive clans for their children. This is a very valuable alliance system, as the child does not sever all ties with his former blood.

Ruling in Nipangui for several centuries is the samurai order, another group of Nobility or ‘middle caste.’ Samurai are marked out from others by the katana worn in their sash (peasant warriors may wear katana, but it must be carried in another way, often on a baldric or on their backs). This well represents their primarily warrior function.

Previously, the samurai were simply the fighting class, at the command of the Emperor, and so it still is in Sai-No-Gu. After the seclusion of the Emperor and the establishment of the Shogunate in Nipangu, samurai became imbedded into nearly all positions of power within the country, aided in administration only by the Scholarly caste civil service. Sai-No-Gu is often commented to represent the more traditional ways: three orders in the Middle Caste. But in gaining power in Nipangu, the samurai debased the other two, the Scholars and the Merchants, the latter of whom were robbed of Noble status altogether and made almost social pariahs. All fiefs were handed over to loyal samurai daimyo.

Not all samurai are daimyo, of course. Those of lesser families serve as retainers, military officers, governors, bureaucrats, and police forces within cities. The greater samurai are land-owning daimyo.

All, however, are expected to be martially trained and great honour is awarded to those who excel at warlike talents. These include fighting in elaborate armour and without, on camel-back and on foot, at swordsmanship and also at other weapons or no weapons at all. Education in other matters, while not as highly valued, is still a priority, especially for daimyo. Philosophy, poetry and statesmanship are all taught by retainers of the Scholarly caste, and recitation of great works or original ones is a popular and respectable pastime in social gatherings.

A samurai is expected to live his life according to various tenets, including humility, self-reflection, honour, skill, loyalty, and duty above all. Should he fail in any great way, he may choose to recover some honour in the ultimate expression of those above qualities: suicide.

As in the other castes, membership in various associations and societies is very important, including kinship groups and veteran’s groups.

The Upper Caste

The final caste is inaccessible by any other way than birth due to the virtue of its racial make-up. The tiny population of Nipangui elf is the final caste.

It is believed by all parties involved that the elves were once men, who were blessed by the Celestial Dragons with long life and the innate right to rule all the islands of the archipelago. The elves are forbidden to be harmed, or sacrosanct in their persons, at least for humans. Other elves can act with more impunity, but there are many traditions and regulations concerning duels and feuds and the manner in which it is acceptable to kill an elf. Despite these regulations, the elven population has been steadily declining for some time.

While elves theoretically have the right and sacred duty to rule, this has never been applied to the elven caste as a whole, but rather only to one elf (per country) at a time, as Emperor. Those members of the caste who are not the Emperor hold a position of respect and reverence, and live lives of ease and even opulence on occasion. They do not necessarily hold any temporal power or innate authority, but would probably be obeyed in all situations save those where the elf was obviously incorrect, or was seen to be placing himself in danger.

Elves occasionally choose a Middle Caste with which they identify and wear its marker. Unlike a human not from the warrior caste, an elf may wear a katana in his sash if he wishes – though such an action would be seen as a serious statement about the elf’s proclivities and is not undertaken lightly. Similarly an elf may wear the Scholar’s writing box, or, in Sai-No-Gu, the Merchant’s abacus. There are no distinctive markers of the Elven caste itself.

Women

Although not enjoying as equal a relationship with men as in comparatively liberal Arangoth, women are celebrated as possessing different qualities from men, many of them laudable.

For one, women are judged as being more clever, especially with wordplay and the arts of conversation. As such, most of the famous poets in Nipangui and Sai-No-Gui history are women.

This has also branched into women’s responsibility in fiduciary matters. In Nipangu this has become more than tradition, and a capital law. Here, women are the only gender allowed to openly discuss economic and mercantile matters. This law was introduced by the Shogunate after their rise to power, as part of their debasing of the Merchants. This was thought to inhibit their victims, as Nipangui merchants (those of whom who are not women themselves) must communicate with each other through female mediators. Because of the great power bestowed upon these women, and the difficulty of this manner of communication, a great number of Merchant families have passed on their businesses and fortunes to daughters rather than sons.

There are women warriors, but they are more rare than males because of the few training schools that actually train women. Pangese fighting culture respects and honours the fact that women have different skills and strengths than men. A men’s dojo that allows women to train is deplored as sloppy and haphazard in its technique for not taking this into account: women must train in dojos meant specifically for them. The sword is taught in these women’s dojo (though the style is almost entirely different), but all other weapons are more typically ‘female’ or ‘neuter.’ These include three-part-staves, naginata, smaller blades, thrown projectiles and will usually NOT include yari (spears), heavier swords, or bludgeoning weapons. The techniques taught are different as well, to take advantage of women’s low centre of gravity, hip power, lack of wrist strength, and other attributes thought to be gender-specific.

Women are associated with earth, morning and sorcery in Nipangui religion, and it is important to remember these are not flattering connections. Earth is the opposite of Heaven, and morning is the transition from holy night to starless day. Sorcery, or more appropriately Witchcraft, of which women are the primary practitioners is not see as reliable or innately good, as Priestly and Druidic magic are, but as chaotic and often unholy.

Save for mercantile matters or other exceptions, common women are taught to be docile, quiet and obedient. They are praised for raising children, preparing meals and other domestic chores but are not encouraged to look beyond these pursuits, save for women of higher society. These Ladies are thought of as a social salve, making any gathering run smoothly by their conversational arts and social skills.

Pangui Elves

The myths of the Pangui identify elves as sacred beings whose ancestors were men elevated above their fellows by the Celestial Dragons. These holy creatures were given the innate right to rule over the world as Emperors.

The Nipangui elf is a slightly different creature than those of the west, but with some of the same characteristics. They are tall, especially for Nipangui humans, most taller than six feet. They are slender and graceful, often even appearing gaunt. Their ears are not uniform, as Westerners, but might have only one point, or come to a double peak or more, or a second point at the bottom of the earlobe. This is seen by the natives as representing a dragon’s fin-like ears. Otherwise, they look very similar to Nipangui, with universally black hair and oriental eyes.

They do have a number of other points of dissimilarity with western elves. Those of the Nipangui variety have no infravision, nor immunity to heat or cold. In fact, Eastern history records a number of emperors who possessed horns or antlers, or even scaled skin, signifying their close kinship with dragons. This could be posthumous rumour or artifice, but if true it would betray even less similarity with their western cousins.

They do, however, have a proclivity towards supernatural powers, including sorcery, druidic power and clerical devotion (a tripartite split of Nipangui magic). This makes elves relatively common among the ranks of Sorcerors (almost exclusively elves) and Witches, monks and nuns, and the Gardeners (see individual listings). The tendency towards clerical magic is also a natural conclusion of their common training and early education in the remote temples of the dragons. Many elves then tend to become Abbots, Sidereal Prophets, or simply remain monks. Others just remain devout throughout their lives. This rearing and education in temples helps to insulate the elves from becoming too opulent and weak-willed, but such lack of character is not a curse they all escape from. Some eschew the monastic rearing of their children and the spoiled demigods which result tend to make poor emperors and poor men.

However, the ascetic life of a monk has led those raised under its precepts to lack an interest in marriage and procreation. This has contributed to the dwindling of the elven population, though they have never been numerous. There are considered to be only a few hundred elves in the entire continent. Procreation with humans is strictly forbidden and has, to common knowledge, never been undertaken. It is assumed to be impossible.

Both civilized human nations have a so-called ‘Most Blessed City of Petals Wherein No Evil Steps’ lodged high in the reaches of the mountains. Also called ‘Forbidden Cities’ by perplexed foreigners, they are named Inimara-Yo and Uosinen-Yo, the former Nipangui and the latter Sainogui. Within their walls a number of elves choose to live in splendour and comfort, served by Nipangui and Sainogui eunuchs. A human requires an Imperial or Shogunate permit to gain entrance here, though elves may come and go freely. Governments often encourage elves to make their home there, as it tends to lead to greater birth rates.

Elves are worshipped by the descendants of the Ni-So-Gui as blessed beings. However, this heavenly status does not give them any temporal power outside of the Imperial throne. Besides religious authority, in fact, elves are discouraged from attempting to undertake any such power as it puts them in danger and dirties their hands with the affairs of mortals. Still, their persons are sacrosanct and they are considered superior in all ways to humans. Bad emperors are lamented privately, but it is not considered a human’s place to judge such affairs. Other elves, or the gods themselves, might be eventually forced to take care of such a situation should it become absolutely necessary. Elves have immensely old and complicated dueling rituals.

Since contact with the West (specifically Western elves), many theories have come about to explain Nipangu’s place in the greater world. Some believe that western elves and men are the descendants of lost mariners and other travelers since the Ni-So-Gui’s arrival in Nipangu. The more widely held belief is that these other peoples are related to those left behind in the Ni-So-Gui’s migration, and that the Celestial Dragons honoured the best of these peoples with long life as well. Through the workings of demons, however, their history was lost or twisted: dragons came to be called Menxvan or Paladine, and elves lost their honoured places. The Beast Demons even twisted some lizards into grotesquely mortal imitations of the dragons, from what Westerners say. No worldly dragon has ever visited Panguro, and some say they consider the entire area taboo for reasons they will not discuss.

Food and Architecture

An Arangothian peasant would be flabbergasted by these strange men who eat with sticks and build with paper.

Food

The primary foods of the Nipangui and Sai-No-Gui are fish, beans, vegetables, noodles, and wild rice (dry cultivated) These are prepared in numerous tasty ways and change in quality and preparation as one climbs the social strata. Fowl is also found, though less commonly.

Nobles and Elves also partake of the treat of wet-cultivated white rice, considered an extreme delicacy. This is grown in the small farming colonies that have been founded in far off southern islands. Silk and exotic fruits are also farmed in these colonies and that transporting of them from the balmy south to the frigid mid ranges is a huge industry. It is dangerous, however, thanks to the hostile Odan tribes in between, and this makes these products even more expensive and rare.

The Sho Gokkan eat a more meat-heavy diet, including red meat. This is often detested by the other two middle nations, but has served to make the camel-men hardy and well-built. Beef, buffalo, mutton, and fowl all find their places in a Sho Gokkan’s stewing pot. They are served similarly to ‘civilized food’, however, prepared in similar sauces and with accompanying vegetables, and eaten with small sticks.

The Saku Irniq halflings share a diet with much heavier meat content. Caribou, rabbit, whale blubber, ox, fowl take their place alongside the mainstay of fish. Far fewer vegetables find their way into the halfling meal, however. Summer berries are meticulously collected and dried to provide nutrition throughout the year. Teas are brewed from certain roots and barks to provide supplementary vitamins as well. Crofts in the southern fjords grow some grains and vegetables as well, but these are still too sparse to become a main part of the diet. Still, imported vegetables are becoming increasingly common. Saku Irniqui food is still eaten with bone-carved sticks.

Tea and sake are the most popular drinks throughout the civilized nations. Nipangui consider foreign variations of tea to be abominations - from the Xiunlans adding ponchu nectar to tea, to Westerners adding everything from cream to honey to lemon - or even serving it cold! Beer and other alcoholic beverages are popular, and a sugar-drink called Baeto (similar to switchel in the west) is a staple at harvest time.

Architecture

Nipangui and Sai No Gui commoners live in two types of dwelling depending on their location. Those on the coasts live in rather flimsy houses made of paper and wood frame called Gata. Because the coastal areas get more temperate weather, but more frequent monsoons and hurricanes the gata are made not with warmth in mind, but with ease of rebuilding. In fact, even if a portion of the gata is destroyed, the rest can stay standing quite easily. For warmth, gata are often surrounded closely by a solid timber fence to protect it from the wind.

Those that live further inland, the majority of the population, live in spacious wood and thatch buildings called Minka. The minka are durable, sturdy houses made to bear the weight of several feet of snow, and survive the damaging of portions of the house without collapsing. They have high windows for good lighting, and steeply pitched roofs for shedding snow. Roofs are either thatched and shingled with cast-off timber.

Houses are most often built by a community, often by a Society designated for organizing just such an event. Timber is hewn with an adze, and the abundant woodland throughout Nipangu provide both this timber and paper for windows, inside doors, some dividers, and gata. Roofs are thatched with reeds or tall grass, and walls are plastered with earth, the timbers chinked with lime and clay.

Minka use a combination of an earthen floor and certain areas with raised floors where one is expected to remove their shoes. Gata, one the other hand, use mostly raised floors. The earthen floor is made comfortable for sitting and sleeping by covering the ground with a layer of grain chaff several centimeters deep, pressed down with straw and covered over with straw matting. The padded-earth floor provides good insulation against the cold and is soft underfoot, unlike the raised wood floor. The raised floor is dryer and easier to clean.