[Culture] The Aqooli Farfolk

[Ibn Khaldun 7728]

THE AQOOLI FARFOLK

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅗𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅮

 

OUT OF CHARACTER FOREWORD

 

This draft of a Farfolk culture came to be after a few members of the community deliberated on having a smaller, more localized focus of Farfolk roleplay. After this interest waned as I worked on this fictional development, I decided to release it in its partial form and invite anyone interested in partaking in Farfolk cultures leaning more towards the Middle Eastern-North Africa flavor to feel free to add and complete this and take it as their own. This particular culture does more to synthesize MENA elements without copy-pasting and making mockery of any such elements. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me on Discord. In terms of in-game contributions, I can do little - but I can certainly help in terms of continuing to write lore or contribute other aesthetic additions.

 

 

WHO ARE THE AQOOLI?
 

The Aqool are a band of families of Farfolk stock sharing a common language and tradition, the former having dialectical varieties and the latter a syncretic combination of smaller cultures. The Aqool claim ancestry and influences from cultural entities including the Qalasheen, the Mihyaari, and more ancient and storied tribes and families including the Southerons and the Subudai of Aegis and Asulon respectively.

 

These bands of families maintain a cohesion centered on their being the least populated stock of humans, of Farfolkish origins, and share a preservationist ambition to preserve both kin and culture. Despite these bonds, it is not infrequent to find internecine conflict between specific families that may include conflicts over jilted men and women, issues over trade and fair treatment, and occasionally armed conflict over the accidental or intentional killings of certain family members. 

 

In the arena of internecine conflict, one of the strongest values expected of any member of the Aqool is that quality of interpersonal dignity - the family handles the blow-by-blow of conflict and there is an increase in honor provided you keep the parties of the conflict limited only between the two or more Farfolkish families. It is considered utterly dishonorable to outsource for participants in your conflict, far better is for your family to bow out and capitulate than to get the Ajeeb involved. The Ajeeb are all those who are neither Farfolk nor a member of any of the families composing the Aqool.

 

THE ZABRADASTI ROLE
 

The Zabradasti is a special class found across families making up the Aqool. In order for one to be considered Zabradasti, one must be the eldest in a family and/or the head of a family. There can be a male and a female Zabradasti. This special class of people are sought after for their judgments in all matters; be it to remediate conflict, to make decisions regarding the local politics or economy, or to guide general decision-making. The Zabradasti is expected to behave and deliberate calmly, level-headedly, and control both desires and passions.

 

THE POLYMATHIC VIRTUE
 

One of the unique virtues inculcated in members of the Aqool is that of attaining the status of a polymath. A polymath is a person who has attained great learning in multiple domains and knowledge bases, like one who has excelled in mathematics, medicine, and botany. The Farfolks of the Aqool see great value in expending effort and wealth in attaining knowledge in multiple areas to compensate for their historically small populations compared to the Heartlanders and Highlanders. Where those greatly populated ethnicities could afford an economy of specialization where members specialized in one skill or study, the Farfolks understood the importance in exerting even greater effort in specializing in multiple skills.

 

THE TOWER OF THE TRANSLATORS
 

The Borj al-Moortarjim [Com. Tower of the Translators] is a great tower, cobbled together floor on floor, filled with translated books & scrolls that span across all known domains of knowledge. The tower is considered a monument to the successive generations contributing to learning and those arts and sciences that the Aqool value. Each family keeps documents of lineage and of their personal wealth stored in the Borj.

 

Farfolk youth are often encouraged to take on tasks given by the maintainers of the Borj. Some of these tasks may be as innocent as writing a study of a designated town or city or people across the continent while other tasks may be as offensive to the Ajeeb as stealing books from libraries found across the land. Given the small population of the Farfolk, the latter tasks are seen as a way to hone an individual’s ability to be clandestine or hold their own in single combat if they happened to have been caught.

 

[Reckless Banzai Screamer 11573]

Owyn loves ALL of his Farfolk children.

[Ibn Khaldun 7728]

On 2/17/2023 at 9:58 PM, Reckless Banzai Screamer said:

Owyn loves ALL of his Farfolk children.

 

 

Owyn the Makurian!