Cultures

• The following is divided by major cultures and their appropriate descriptors. These are often including multiple countries or other governments within them for the sake of convenience.

Bun Cultures:

Almiraj Empire, Tsarcrov

Almiraj Kingdom, Azmalakah

Skvander Stratocracy, Myndighet

Dwarf Tribune, Shenze

Rex Kingdom, Reyflor

Vulps

Surface Vulps, Tribal

General Elements

• A vulp tribe is almost always a hunter-gatherer structure, though due to their oppposition to eating plants the gathering is limited to foods like shellfish or eggs and plants/substances with a non-food application. Division of this labor is wholly unconcerned with gender roles (gender being a concept completely unknown to vulps). Those assigned to hunting often range several days out from their home to build up a larger catch before returning. Vulps hunt whatever is most available in their region but also adjust hunting habits so as to not eliminate prey populations. The catches from these hunts will be either eaten immediately or dried for long term storage. Despite the opposition to smelting the vulp tribes seem perfectly willing to retain items of smelted material from any buns caught on a hunt and seem to regard them as a part of the natural spoils of the hunted creature.
• Vulp clothing is primarily leathers and furs. While they are perfectly capable of weaving that pursuit seems largely limited to decorative and religious purposes. The clothing worn tends to be more functional than anything else and is usually consists only of protective elements around the trunk and extremities. Decoration is largely reserved for jewelry and worn fetishes. Vulps wear a large amount of these and they can be made of most any material but almost always include elements of a prize from a hunt (bones, teeth, scales, or even shiny objects taken off of a bun). As noted vulps do not recognize gender and as a result there is no strong difference in clothing along those lines.
• Vulp culture places no heavy emphasis on any specific sexuality and are equally accepting of any relationship so long as it doesn't harm the cohesiveness of the tribe as a whole. Vulps reach adulthood in the tribe at 22 years, at which point they are allowed to begin seeking out adult relationships. Vulps also have no objection to polyamory and it is not unusual for an exceptionally skilled hunter, chieftain, or shaman to have multiple partners. The primary physical elements of attraction in vulps are tail fullness/length, ear height, coat coloration (with a preference towards darker colors), and long fangs. The primary social elements of attraction in vulps are exclusively around the vulps ability to support the tribe, whether it be in hunting, gathering, the processing of supplies or in the rearing of children.
• Children in the vulp tribes are referred to as cubs and are typically born in groups of 2-3 cubs at a time. Once born cubs are considered at once both a shared resource of the tribe and a responsibility of their parents. While cubs learn from and are often given chores by all members of the tribe their behavior and discipline is primarily left to their parents. For cubs too young to engage in work the tribe typically assigns 1-3 adults who show an aptitude for childcare to tend to the cubs and keep watch over them so that their parents can continue to contribute their labor to the tribe. Cubs are usually able to graduate from the duveflack (literally puddle of fluffs) at around 7 years of age when they are old enough to take up simple chores without supervision.
• Conflicts between tribal members are usually resolved through arbitration under the appropriate leader. If the leader finds that both sides have an equal claim in the issue they may be issued a requirement to engage in a form of duel to resolve the conflict. Punishments can include death but that is very rare and vulps are far more likely to banish a problematic member than they are to kill them.
• Vulp tribes produce a large amount of what could be considered art, though most of it also serves a practical or religious purpose. Most common are large (.8-.9 m) painted clay vessels used to store substances for fermentation in caves. Vulps typically decorate with depictions of natural objects or depictions of tribal legends and important figures.
• Voxen are viewed as a divine gift by any tribe lucky enough to have one and almost all voxen, whether of their own intent or out of pressure, will become shaman and leaders of their tribe. Their magic is somewhat warped by the cultural interpretation which holds that the magic of the body is to strengthen and heal the tribe, the magic of poisons is the amplify their hunting skills, and that the illusions are the ability to see mystical visions that are shared with all but can only be interpreted by the voxen (A belief that many have taken advantage of).

Religion

• Tribal vulps are raised under a strong religious guidance that claims the abundance of material recources in nature (minerals/metals growing from biological life, very edible creatures, and the magic to reshape parts of the body into natural weapons) indicates that their god (Xyl) intended for them to use the natural resources to their fullest without the need to destroy them in the process and therefore smelting was a horrible sin. As a result the tribal vulps ban the use of smelted metal. Accompanying beliefs of a vulpocentric nature mean that they also believe the purpose of all life on the planet is to enable vulps to thrive and as a result they tend to consider all other species to be food.
• These religious views are maintained by either a voxen shaman or a tribal elder who acts as a leader in religious rites and rituals. If separate from the tribes chieftain then the religious leader acts as a co-leader, taking priority of clan dictum in all things spiritual but ceding control over matters of day-to-day management.
• Rites often include the following elements; sacrifice of a living creature (Value of a sacrifice is by size, so a large cattle would be considered a better sacrifice than a bun), painting the bodies with dyes, the burning of a wide variety of herbal concoctions, and the construction of fetishes.

Underground Vulps

General Elements

• The vulpi living underground do so in large cities in caverns. These cities are often placed near underground lakes or streams for obvious reasons. The outskirts of the city often become large fields of crops (typically fungal but with a few exceptions). The absence of large military forces underground means that very few of the cities have any form of major wall or gate. In addition to the etoilebre (large magical plants that emit light) most of these cities sport large towers with a convex polished metal disk to reflect an internal light source. These are typically absent in the fields as many of their crops are bio-luminescent.
• Most of these cities are run as a form of plutocratic-aristocratic-republic where a council containing members of the most influential or powerful families are responsible for the ruling of the city. This results in both an noticeable class divide and in a large amount of political intrigue. Because of this divide and governmental structure most of the lower class find themselves ignored by the official laws of the city and their regions instead become ruled by either the local noble family or, in the case of the poorest areas, by a local gang. The official law enforcement comes about from an ostensibly neutral group of guards funded jointly by all members of the council. These guards however are only concerned with the laws relating to interactions with noble houses and are only seen by common vulps when making an arrest on accusation by a noble. Unofficial law enforcement comes from the muscle employed by individual houses and the gangs.
• Fashion in these cities as an overall guideline focuses a lot on vertical flowing cloth, vertical striping, and heavy ornamentation. The relative absence of seasonal factors means that most cities are founded in areas where the temperature is comfortable all year round. Due to this most vulp fashion finds little need to focus on any form of protection from the elements and aside from professional clothing designed for occupational protection tends to leave limbs and torsos uncovered.
• Since vulp magic includes many bio-magic elements and in the cities has advanced to the point where it can cause extensive modifications to the body leading to modifications as a large facet of vulp fashions. While many of these modifications include elements as minor as fur color, glowing markings, or changes of eye color they also include a lot of more severe mods, especially in high fashion circles.

  Vulp Body Modification

• Like their tribal kin, city vulps do not have a heavy emphasis on sexuality and no real social concept of gender. Because of this there's no notable discrimination against sexualities in their society. A vulp is considered an adult and able to seek out adult relationships at 20 years of age. Unlike tribal vulps they do not consider polyamory normal, though it is tolerated it is very infrequent. Physical attractiveness for city vulps focuses heavily on height of all elements (ears, arms, legs, torso) and pale physical coloration. Social attractiveness among the higher class is completely around financial and social position while among the lower classes it is more heavily split between an ability to support their family, compassion, and kindness.
• Cubs are still born at a rate of 2-3 per birth. While city vulps do not have the same communal child-rearing methods as tribal vulps they do tend to live in extended family units (A typical vulp family includes at least 3 generations of a family) to enable effective child rearing. Vulp children are expected to help with household chores as early as 7 and to begin earning a full wage as early as 13 years. At 13 a cub is traditionally given a Vieufete (Age Celebration) which marks their entry into full responsibility and in high-society is the point where they can represent their family at official functions. Much of education is performed at home or by apprenticeships with a few cities having a civicole (Civil Academy) that provides education for a fee (or for a contract obligating the student to working as a civil servant for a while). The exception to this are voxen cubs who are offered a chance to pursue education at the Sorsedemie (Magic Academy) under similar clause to the civicole.

Religion

• Most vulp cities still, at least in an official sense, worship Xyl. All of the cities have at least one temple to them and an order of priests dedicated to their worship. But at the same time most of these same cities find that the steady development of culture and philosophy has pushed their worship into a less central position. These temples remain well funded more from displays of wealth from nobles attempting to one-up each other than from regular worshipers. Also unlike their tribal cousins the city vulp's religion is now mostly devoid of any notion of physical sacrifice. Those rites have been replaced with sermons, prayers, songs, and similar religious functions.