Bermuda

Bermuda

Official Name	Bermuda					Motto	To the New World Order
People	Bermudan					Goods	Bermudan
Flag & Symbol						Crafts	Bermudan
						Honorifics	Graga
						Greeting	Urga
						Parting	Ehgro
Respect Shown	Keeping your clasped hands in sight at all times.
Virtues			Vices					Towns
Cooperation		Magnanimity	Disharmony		Distrust			Montego	Aruba
Knowledge		Family	Dishonesty		Treason			Kokomo	Largo
Armor			Weapons					Temples
None			Khopesh, Karn					Paria, Mansa
			Spear					Qetza. Gallae

Introduction

Isolationist, uninvolved, outsiders – the ways that people describe the least seen of all the people are often traced back to these ideas. Shipwrecked sailors have said they watched them abandon them on a shore instead of help. Explorers have said they were attacked, subject to poisoned dart spit from blowguns in the shadows. Mages seeking rare and unusual ingredients for a ritual have reported being cut down early.

All this, and for the last two dozen years, a delegation from Bermuda has approached each of the different Realms and offered trade terms, seeking to open up a discourse and potentially form an alliance. They even encourage people to visit certain areas of their coastal lands, where they apparently have set up some sort of resort. Chicory says it is wonderful. Something about “only way she’ll ever get a cabana boy”, whatever that means. They get along well with and have borrowed things from Islandians, and the prior examples are often waved off as they were interlopers, prying into things that are private, and Bermudans and are extremely protective of their privacy and their realm; otherwise, they avoid dealing with people whenever possible.

Attitude

Bermudans are not neutral, but they are only on their own side. They do not seek to bridge a divide or serve and the relatively few every year who run off to join the Dread Host are considered criminals and outcasts, and the penalties for such are swift, brutal, and without appeal.

They do not encourage engagement with the Bright lands, for they don’t have trade agreements and do not trust easily nor deeply – and likely with good reason. Their small, flatbottom boats are wonderful for passing through marshes, swamps, and such, but they are not very agile on the seas. They do use canoes, but rarely and then only for speed. They are an industrious people, who produce a very fine ceramic, intricately detailed and decorated, and they are a patient people who have things they want, but not at the price many will sometimes demand. They are a frugal people with their favor, their wealth, and their secrets.

Government

For seventeen generation, there has been a King Kobold on the throne of Bermuda. From it, he oversees the vast assortment of villages – traditional and the more modern resorts being built to attract others – and enforces laws made and decided through counsel with his Nobles, the Dukes, Counts, Earls, and Barons that each oversee a given space.

The King declares nobility, and it appears that they do not track Houses the way that others have and find it essential that nobles be people who are liked. This could also be because every Bermudan – no matter where they came from or what they are, is a soldier, and is expected to defend the people and its way of life, which they see as always being precarious.

Bermudans want to be part of the larger world stage and benefit from it (especially in relation to alcohol and fruits, which they absolutely love but have poor results with, save for pineapples), but do not want to sacrifice the life, the ways, the culture that they have built for themselves – and that includes not having to give service to any of the Powers, for there are no temples, no shrines, no manses. The extent of Bermudan religion is those who have passed within living memory, and hoping that they have a better life in the next one.

Family

Bermudans raise their children in creches, collective areas, and the children are the children of the whole village, even if they might be easily identifiable as the progeny of one person or another. As Bermudans do not have strong ties and bonds with children in the same way that others do, it is often thought they don’t have them with others as adults, and this is deeply untrue. Once hatched, they are raised in the communal hall and all are taught the crucial principles of Bermudan life, including reading and writing – Bermuda may have the greatest degree of literacy among all the realms.

The most important relationship for Bermudans is between mates, and a given group will typically mirror the diversity of the population as a whole: one man, three women, and two themon. While some groups may be smaller (deaths, haven’t found the right person yet, and so forth), they will never be larger as that throws off the balance of ability. Eggs produced will go to the creche, but the devotion and commitment of the partners endures, and is often times so close that killing one may kill others from the grief and loss.

Typically, it is the themon who are the heads of family units, but note that this is a rough idea, as they are all committed to each other, and all are still very much able to fend for themselves. There are no gender role divisions in Bermuda.

Culture

Values

Bermudans value Family, country, and independence. For them, Unity and diversity, equality and equity are key principle, core values, and they do not see those in others readily. Cooperation, Magnanimity, Knowledge, considered thinking, openness, and honesty are all central tenets, and their obverses are often reasons for punishment, as there do not seem to be many overt folkways among Bermudans.

Cultural Weapons

Bermudans are primarily hunters, and primarily work by ambush, so they have gained notoriety for building complex traps and snares and pits. They frequently will use toxins on darts, arrows, and javelins, but if they go into a full battle they will use a small shield, a short sword, and a five foot long, broad bladed spear. In a grappling contest, they will use their teeth and claws, much like any other person would, but note their claws can gouge and scratch deeper than most.

Bermudans use small shields that also double as their bowls, plates, and whatnot. About 15 inches in diameter, and they are square with rounded edges. In formal battle, they will wear a front breast plate, and their back scales are plenty tough enough as it is.