Musings on the Astorans Vol. I

[ColdestPepsi 1176]

 

Musings on the Astorans

Vol. I

 

Issued and averred by

Prince

Gareth of the Petra and of Astor

An Explanation

 

Ramblings

In my quest to understand my in-laws, the family with which I have made my stake with by tying myself to their fate through marriage, I have found a lack thereof. A lack of understanding by myself in part due to not being immersed myself. I am one of them through bond of word, sacred bond confirmed through the church, marriage. I am also one of them honorarily, having gone through the tribulations of Freyfit in order to be accepted as Consort to Fir’Steinn. Yet I do not understand them or their ways, why drown, why adopt, why anything with this family. Thus the following document is to put to paper, to fact, to words that which I have learned, in order to fit it together like a puzzle and reach illumination and understanding. Perhaps in writing this those who also come into contact with my family will also be able to gain better understanding into why they are how they are. While many things in this may seem silly, these are legitimate things which I have been able to extract through my time with my in-laws

 

The Story of the Astorans

 

The First Few

A long and cold march, continuous treks through the ice wastes they called home in an attempt to find seals, walrus, and small game to hunt and eat. They had and have not a name for these ice wastes they called home, I doubt to them that it mattered, it was merely where they thought they thought they would best survive. Or perhaps they remained in a frigid wasteland due to that being where they had been so far as they could remember, they could not think to survive elsewhere, not yet at least. The first and few were elves, held back by their being elves, as well as the harsh conditions, only able to produce few more, and even then with a rough chance of survival due to the conditions they found themselves in. To bring new life into the group was to demand more resources, food was and still is hard to find in the wastes.

 

The Adoptions

In a bid for more resources the first and now second turned to alternative means of acquiring what they needed to survive, raiding, killing, fleeing upon reprisal with their new goods. Upon the completion of one of these raids one of them managed to find a young adult still alive, beaten and down, yet not broken, not a drain on resources. They were taken in, forced to learn from the culture of the people who had just killed their own. This was the first adoption, more were to come, no matter their lineage, Malin, Horen, or whoever. It drew them further and further into conflict, to take resources was to take something which could be replaced, not without some effort of course but manpower is something far costlier to lose. Thus, the nomadic peoples of the ice wastes devolved into fighting, small skirmishes that would lead to one or two dead with others taken and being converted to their captor’s ways of living being a regular occurance until the Astorans were unmatched in the wastes. 

 

Reflection

Upon their ascendency as the highest nomadic culture in the wastes they stopped, they settled in a valley with a nearby beach which seals rested upon, and they thought for a great while. A great dialogue came about, it being of what they had done, yes they had increased their numbers, yes they were no longer threatened, yes they had won glory in these fights with individual merit reigning true in the small engagements, and yes they had survived. Yet they had also lost much, many individuals had lost loved ones, an arrow here or there which met its mark true, a blade swifter than one of their own. Life gained though life taken. When they emerged they had changed their outlook, it was not worth to gain one through violence, they did not need to do such. From here on, they would still migrate, though settle in the harsher months, they would not raid, they would not kill without just reason, they would adopt without violence. The one who would oversee this change would be the first Astoran chief, Astor “The Watcher” of Astor, or Watcher the Watcher of Watching in full translation.

 

To be Astoran

Of course this new beginning of the Astoran people was not one which would be rainbows and sunshine, some wanted more, some wanted to aim for better. As the months allowed individuals would leave the main group in search of fairer land, a place to start a new group of their people. They needed not blood to expand the family, though such would always be appreciated and welcome, instead to become Astoran one would need to do something else. The name Astoran, I have yet to describe where the name for the people comes from. It comes from their word Astor; watch, observe, inspect. This is what is believed by them to make up what an Astoran is, to be of Astor one must watch, observe, inspect. They must do this not only with the culture they seek to join but also with the world around them. They name themselves not after their homeland but instead their actions, how they expect their people to act after their introspection.

 

Traditions & Beliefs

 

Freyfit

Exercise, for hours straight, being yelled at the entire time, only to be lowered when exhausted into a barrel of water when exhausted and have the lid shut on you, only to be questioned upon emergence from the cold waters and then closed back in depending on the answer or lack thereof given. This is a rite of passage that all Astorans must go through.

 

The Times/Freytimes

The Times, the Freytimes (for the Petran Astorans), or the (insert name of the Astoran cultural progenitor in the area)times are a belief commonly held that the Astoran cultural group will have their group saved by their cultural progenitor in the land in which they inhabit. If their culture was able to evolve and change in response to wound left through struggle in the past then logically they should be able to rely on such in the future, that the one who is most closely related back to the original group will provide the illumination in how to overcome their current great struggle for survival against destruction.

 

The Frozen Damning

  Frozen, cold, struggle for survival, the land which led to the evolution into the modern Astoran culture is also what many Astorans believe await them if they are to live without virtue. Though there remains one key difference between their initial cultural shift’s origin point and this afterlife of frozen misery, the afterlife it is believed one is alone, unsupported, without the others they had in life to support them, making it a lonely and nigh impossible existence. It is interesting to see that their homeland is truly believed by many to be one of the worst places that might happen to someone.

 

The Great Honor

A practice adopted by some of the Fir’Steinn Astorans through their founder’s proximity to Icathian remnants and their descendants. The great honor is the practice of when one has guests over at their dwelling, should they have the means and the honor of hosting someone of a high enough standing, that they will have the highest person of honor strangle one of the accursed demon fish. The Demon fish before this is to be beaten and exhausted so that there is no potential of harm able to be done to the guest of honor that is to strangle the fish.

 

Education from Experience

To cut yourself on a blade and to learn that it hurts is a valuable lesson. This is essentially the core of the ideas behind how to educate children for Astorans. In order for someone to effectively learn something, they need to experience it. Further, this experiential learning is in order to have positive and negative reinforcement leading to it being of their own actions completely to learn and come to the swift realization of if something is positive or negative. This does not necessarily only translate into children doing their own things in order to learn however. Parents are expected to take some active role in helping to bring the individual trying to learn something to a practical demonstration of such and thus to have them learn first hand. One such example would be for a person meant to become a head of house to accompany their leader to meetings so that they might gain insight into how these are acted out.

 

Day of Foresight

An important day for Astorans around the world the day of foresight, or commonly referred to as Gringhog day, is one which helps to bring portents of what is to come. When the day comes around each year it is customary for Gringles or another facsimile to come out of their abode in each Astoran place of dwelling and if they are to remain out and peaceful then such is a sign that there will be peace that year. However, if they do not come out or quickly move back in then that is the portent that there is to be conflict this year, that war should be prepared for.

 

Wawa Lifting

A highly lethal sport for the Astorans, wawa lifting is the lifting, or attempt of lifting a walrus without dying. Injuries and deaths are common with a broken arm and leg happening to most if one is not to go to their believed great freeze. Popularized by the sight of the first Astoran orc, Eadmer of Astor, lifting a walrus to save a child after it tried to turn them into a pancake many bragged that they could or would do the same. Thus with all the bragging and big talk a competition was held in which four died and seven more were crippled with Eadmer coming out on top.

Struggling for understanding my S.O.,

Prince Gareth Lucius Temesch of the Petra and of Astor, Count of Theral and Baron-Consort of Fir’Steinn, Brigadier of the Bagworms