Folklore and Customs of the Land
The bogs of the east are the most alive lands in all of Thiusland. Every square mile of the water and earth teems with insects, beasts, life, death, and magic, it’s a power that charges the very air. The only true success in taming the wildness of the land is the fortress city of Xedoc, and it is an anomaly born of centuries of work by the lizardfolk, gnomes and now halflings of the bogs. However it only stands because those who made it understand the balance that must be kept in place, a balance they also carry as caretakers of their land. For when things grow and die so quickly as they do in the bogs one tip for the scales can cause one population to flourish and another to die, and it is only a matter of time that this imbalance will come to every resident of the bog.
The people of the bog understand and respect balance so much that they see the world as having fundamental truths that are always in balance, some see them as gods as others see them as inescapable rules of the world. The God or Rule of Attraction, who pulls us all firmly on the ground, who brings a magnet to metal, who brings like minds together. Whose Duality is the God or Rule of Replusion, that which pushes two magnets away, refuses to let oil and water mix, makes two opinions fight. The God or Rule of Patterns, that sees the same result happen when a process is repeated, that makes the seasons change, that makes history seemingly repeat.Whose duality is The God or Rule of Chaos, who makes things change slightly, that changes the lengths of seasons, that makes people spontaneous.The God or Rule of Vital Energy, that gives things life, that feeds fires, that sees plants grow and heals the broken. Whose duality is The God or Rule Decay, that all things die, witter and cease to be, the keeper of all disease. The Easterners apply this to other gods of Thiusland as well, seeing Sun and Moon as a duality or Winter and Spring, Summer and Fall as aspects of one another but their belief does not carry far past the borders of their land. The lizardfolk take the concept of duality to such an extreme that they never refer to themselves in I in writing, as it is too singular, always refer to themselves by their name, as they see it as containing the multitudes of their being.
Symbols painted depicting the gods can look different depending on the angle you view them, two faces in the one. Same too with shrines which have a top and bottom level dedicated to each aspect of the gods, and that you offer to both. The Cloisters that maintain these shrines or draw power from them usually have a preferential aspect but are challenged to hold both in their hearts and minds equally.
The Scriptorium of Ridgemarsh
During the reign of the God of Enigmatic Decay there was a singularly minded effort to collect and control all written knowledge of not only the eastern bogs but the entirety of Thiusland. While the God reveled in knowledge of engineering feats and magical secrets the true damage was being done to the folklore of the people, who were at risk of losing their stories from memory. This oppression created an oral tradition, accompanied by song, into ballads that professed the prowess of ancient warriors, the humility of those brought low, the cautionary tale of those who reached too far and values that should be held tight. These ballads held onto the stories as well as they could and would be sung in secret to friends and family during the Usurper God’s reign.
Now that the God lays dead there is a concentrated effort to re-record these tales into print before the ones who memorized them die of old age or let them slip from memory. For this mission the settlement of Ridgemarsh mobilized, situated on a river’s bank with strong clay deposits the clay tablets of Ridgemarsh are now becoming the historical archive for all folk tales that survived for the gnomish, smallfolk and lizardfolk of the eastern bogs. They keep the tablets in the brick towers high on the ridge, even carving some tales into the bricks themselves, as the towers stand as proud keepers of the lore of its people.
Art and Symbology
In the long history of the Lizardfolk and smallfolk of the bogs the use of magic and art to navigate the world and relate their experiences of it. The earliest forms of artistry of the Lizardfolk were the pictographic language used by the Vipara to communicate with others Folk they encountered when travelling Thiusland. The pictographic language lost its prevalence to the written language of the Skink when the Vipara integrated into Xedoc. What survived from the now dead language was the cultural shorthand of a certain image meaning a certain concept. This symbology found new life during the rule of the God of Enigmatic Decay. As recorded knowledge was regulated heavily by the God and written word was stifled, a revival of symbology emerged and soon paintings became political statements, warnings to others, and the spreader of knowledge.
The festival takes place yearly though not always at the same time. A location and date is chosen by the last year’s winner in which competing artists must travel to and in the span of a full day and night capture not only the look of the landscape but the feeling of it. Many artists do this with yamzuk skin canvas that can retain magical effects and actually cast onto the canvas to create their portrait while others use traditional paints and inks to create their interpretation. The festival was restricted during the god’s rule to be only magical art but since the emancipation of the bogs it’s grown to once again include traditional paints as well as other artistic mediums such as carving and sculpting. The winner is determined by public vote and is displayed at the hall of wonders in Xedoc city, in the repurposed remains of the Tower of Tomes.
Have Ya Any
On the first frost of the season, which comes late in the eastern bogs, a tradition transforms smallfolk neighborhoods and towns alike. A smallfolk from the community, usually an elder or a child as they are most likely to wake earliest, calls out loud and clear,
‘Have ya any peat to make a fire?’
Those awake or willing to wake emerge from their homes with peat in hand and bring it to the central square says ‘Aye, Aye, got some peat for a fire’
Then as the fire is lit the assembled group calls out loud and clear
‘Have ya got a pot for cooking?’
Now as the tradition has grown there is usually a ceremonial pot big enough for everyone to cook with but some villages with only a few bring out many smaller pots. The pot is then rung like a bell as the assembled call out
‘Have ya got any oil for a fry?’
And so comes the next group with oils filling the large pot, and at this point most are awake, the children are gitty and chatter is aplenty. The chatter lowers when a whistle blows and the ones tending the pot say
‘Well! We got a fry going, where’s ya dough?’
And those later to the gathering bring in dough to put in the pot and make delicious balls of dough mixed with dried berries that start to be passed around to the congregated until all are fed.
This tradition harkens to when the smallfolk first arrived in the bogs, they were alone and separate in their community and some families struggled in the early winters as picking and planting season ended. To remind the smallfolk of what they came from but also that the struggle remains, they make sure every first frost to share well and share far with their community as many are in need in the colder months.
The Magic of Mold Jars
The nature of magic in Thiusland comes from that of the shared life force that is in every and all things. The North harnesses the life in wood, the plains harness the life of growth in plants and animals and the east also harnesses growth but that of bacteria and fungus. The process fungus and bacteria feeding off plant matter and sugars causes growth and the release of new life that the magicians of the eastern bogs harness and then guide with ancient and poetic spoken commands.
When the life is drawn from a mold jar’s feeding it quickens the process of the bacteria feeding so the one calling on the power must be careful not to ask for too much. When a magician pulls too much power it will first kill the bacteria culture of their mold jar and then pull from their stomachs, looking for the next source of healthy bacteria. This outcome can be avoided by a spell worded with extra care and safe guards, making it cease its effects before over-drawing.
Naturally the bogs burst with the magical process of life becoming death and feeding more life. There are things that would be seen as oddities elsewhere in Thiusland that are commonplace in the bogs as the raw magic seeps into the very nature of the land. Most of these effects are harmless but this too had been changing in recent years as the God’s soup magic warped the balance of the bogs.